


Long Way Home

by kingdomfaraway



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, F/M, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Issues, Minor Injuries, Peter Parker Has Panic Attacks, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker has PTSD, Post-Spider-Man: Far From Home, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man Identity Reveal, superhero stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:28:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23876938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingdomfaraway/pseuds/kingdomfaraway
Summary: After Spider-man is revealed to be Peter Parker, SHIELD presents the world a new, different Peter Parker and chalks the reveal up to mistaken identity. In order to protect those he loves, Peter is forced to hang up the suit and let someone else be Spider-man for a while.Feeling like he’s lost his identity, Peter tries to be the high school senior as he should be, without being Spider-man. How does Peter balance what he feels is a potential new threat with his promise to stay away from the suit? Peter’s been without the suit before, but what is he without the name Spider-man?
Relationships: Happy Hogan/May Parker, Peter Parker & Michelle Jones & Ned Leeds, Peter Parker/Michelle Jones
Comments: 6
Kudos: 50





	Long Way Home

**Author's Note:**

> ***Originally I was posting this with separate chapters, however since I finished way ahead of time, I'm posting it all in one go without chapters.***
> 
> So, this is my take on a canon compliant continuation of the Spider-man films. There are sprinkles of canon Spider-man comics in there too, for good measure. 
> 
> A thank you to my lovely beta Ginny who does not mind when I annoy her (or at least don't like say it or anything). And to my amazing husband who most likely deserves a writing credit at this point for helping me get out of some dead ends and inspiring a lot of really good material.
> 
> Kudos & comments are always appreciated and loved. :)

Peter wasn’t exactly in hiding and he wasn’t on the run either, he was just in a weird state of limbo. It was almost impressive, if it wasn’t absolutely terrifying, just how quickly SHIELD scooped both Peter and May up after the news announcement. He barely had time to even think of a plan before bam, suddenly in the backseat of a black car, and taken away to a super-secret SHIELD facility. And that’s where Peter was forced to stay, thankfully along with May and maybe not so thankfully, along with Happy. The two of them got to spend time together in domestic bliss while Peter sat in a bedroom, bored out of his mind. He all but begged for MJ and Ned to be brought in, especially if the world knew he was Peter Parker, the world would eventually find his best friend and… girlfriend (if that was even true anymore, Peter was all but kidnapped after their first kind of date).

Fury, who talked to Peter in a tone that indicated he was so very tired of his shit, had sent SHIELD Agents to watch over them and in a gesture to show Peter that no, they weren’t in jail here, graciously let Peter call them whenever he wanted. 

So for almost two weeks, Peter stayed in his tiny new living space spending all of his time on conference calls with MJ and Ned. They were the only things keeping him from going insane. It was boring, the whole compound was just boring. You’d think an organization of superheroes and super spies would at least have something interesting to look at. Peter suspected they were keeping him away from all the interesting things to look at.

Peter spent the rest of the time wondering if he could even be Spider-man anymore. How completely unfair it was, he was finally catching a break. He finally felt good about being both Peter Parker and Spider-man and then this. His secret identity was stolen from him, one last trick by Beck. There was a ball of despair pitted in the bottom of his stomach and it was threatening to work its way up and take over Peter entirely. Could he do it? Could he just give up Spider-man? What if they made h

At first it had sounded like Peter was never going to leave the facility again, Fury was adamant that they stay in hiding for Peter’s safety and that meant not going back to school. The thought was eating Peter alive from the inside. He’d pleaded with May to be on his side. Please, he said, it was his senior year, they had to let him have this.

A week before school was supposed to start Fury called everyone in for a meeting. Peter sat bored at a long metal table in a briefing room.

May and Happy were sitting at Peter’s side and they were waiting on the rest of the “team”. Peter, apparently, now required a team of people to solve his problems. 

The door swung up very suddenly and Peter looked up to see Fury, Hill, and two other Agents walking in, holding various amounts of folders. “Alright,” Fury said, taking a seat at the head of the table, “let’s talk about what’s going to happen.” 

Peter didn’t like the finality of Fury’s tone.

“Thanks to the hard work of Agents Watson and Drew, we’ve successfully proved the footage of Spider-man issuing the drone strike is not painting the whole picture. As we’ve established before, we don’t want to try to spin this as being completely fake. Thankfully we’ve got some shapeshifting friends who were glad to lend a hand to make this more authentic. As for Mr. Parker’s identity here, we’re ready to proceed with a conference to reveal the real Spider-man identity. We’ve got everything in place to spin this as a misidentification of our Peter Parker, for the real Peter Parker. Our Peter was in the wrong place at the wrong time, just a high school student on a field trip.” 

Peter snorted, that was an understatement. Peter’s default status was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“That means,” Fury continued, “our Peter Parker here can return back to school.”

The fear in Peter’s gut almost dissolved, did Fury really just tell him that?

“Really?” Peter said, trying to hide the overwhelming happiness in his voice. “I can go back?”

Fury turned and looked him straight in the eyes. “You can go back to school if you stop being Spider-man.”

There it was, that was the gut punch Peter had been waiting for. He wondered if this was their plan all along. The air felt like it was sucked out of the entire room.

“No.” It was all Peter could say and it came out sounding too small and too weak for Peter’s ears. “Not happening.”

“If we are trying to show them you aren’t Spider-man, then we can’t have the possibility of two of you running around,” Fury continued.

“What if we take turns?” Peter asked, trying to come up with any valid reasoning.

“Peter,” May said finally, he absolutely hated the way she had said his name. That was the pitying tone, which was the bad news is on its way tone in her voice. “We just want to keep you safe.”

The pit in Peter’s stomach deepened. He looked at May and Happy, oh yes, there was no way they didn’t know what was happening at this point. They had talked about this without him and Peter had a feeling they made this decision without him, too.

“I can’t give up Spider-man.” He said firmly looking Fury right in the eye. 

“You aren’t giving up Spider-man,” Fury said, holding Peter’s look. “You are temporarily relinquishing Spider-man until we feel it’s safe.”

“Who’s we?” Peter questioned. 

“All of us, Peter,” May answered. “We’ll talk about it together. When we all feel it’s safe, we’ll let you back out there.”

Peter hated how it sounded like being Spider-man was something he could just turn on and off. Something he had to ask permission to do. They didn’t give him Spider-man, it wasn’t something he asked for and it shouldn’t be something that could be taken away from him. Not like this.

May reached over and put her hand on his. “We are all doing this for your best interests.”

He hated the feeling of not being Spider-man, even worse the feeling of someone else being Spider-man. Did Fury just steal away his field trip so Peter could be Spider-man? Now he’s telling Peter, never mind, be a kid again. 

“Can I keep my suit? My things?” Peter asked. “He doesn’t have to take them, does he?”

Fury looked almost like he was going to laugh. “No. Everything comes back with us. You can get it all back when you’re ready.”

Peter shook his head. “No.”

Fury looked at him again. “This is the deal, kid. You can go back to school and not be Spider-man or you can sit in this bunker and not be Spider-man. Either way, you aren’t getting your suit.”

Peter looked down at his hands, he was fidgeting them relentlessly. He looked up at May, she had already agreed to this, he knew. She wouldn’t be here talking to him like this if she hadn’t. 

He had made her a promise after she found out he was Spider-man, if she asked him to stop, he would stop for her.

He ran his hand through his hair and then looked away from May, keeping his eyes on the table. He could feel tears, they were starting to build up. He wouldn’t cry over this, not in front of Fury. 

He cleared his throat. “Okay, fine.”

He could feel something lift from everyone else in the room and he wondered if they didn’t think he’d even do it. But he would, he knew, deep down inside, this was the right move. If he wanted to be Spider-man and Peter Parker, he had to step away for a minute. 

“Thank you,” May said to him, squeezing his hand before letting go. The meeting continued, but Peter zoned out, the pit in his stomach only growing more.

====

“Do you think there’s,” Ned looked around, eyes darting throughout the empty room, “secret weapons and stuff here?”

MJ rolled her eyes, leaning back in the conference room chair, her feet up on the edge of the table. “They blindfolded us to get here. I’m pretty sure this is where they keep their secrets.”

“Do you think they can hear us?” Ned asked again, looking over the entire very plain looking boardroom.

“Yeah,” Peter replied, “I’m pretty sure every room in here is bugged.”

Ned looked worried for a heartbeat and then smiled. “Cool.”

They were sitting in a very bland looking boardroom, waiting for the Spider-man conference to start and end. Fury was waiting to release them back home until the new Spider-man was revealed to the public. Then they could return back to their lives.

There was a TV in the room on a cart. Peter felt like he was in school again and a substitute teacher was going to show them a movie soon.

“Do you know the new guy’s name?” Ned asked Peter, turning in his chair. 

“Dunno,” Peter answered.

“Is he going to look like you?” Ned asked. He was looking around the edge of the table, for bugs Peter assumed.

“Dunno,” Peter replied, realizing he maybe should have paid attention in the meeting. “He’s not the new Spider-man. He’s just pretending.”

“Does he,” Ned lowered his voice, “have abilities?”

“Uh,” Peter answered, “no, he’s using some kind of suit or something.”

“Think it’ll work?” MJ asked him, she took her feet off the table finally, pulling her chair closer to Peter. Their chairs made a clinking sound when they hit.

Peter shrugged his shoulders, he had missed being around MJ. She smirked at him, their eyes staying locked for a moment.

“Can you two, like not?” Ned pipped in. “It’s bad enough on the phone, in person, this is just too much.”

The door opened before Peter could reply, Happy and May slipped. Happy walked over and grabbed the TV’s remote from the cart before sitting beside May.

“Hi Ms. Parker, Peter’s bodyguard,” MJ said, smiling at the two of them. May beamed back to her, Happy did not.

“Still not Peter’s bodyguard,” he mumbled, fumbling with the remote. He managed to turn the TV on after a second and the press conference had already started.

Agent Hill was talking, Peter could hear, but he wasn’t really listening.

There were a lot of mixed feelings when he left the meeting a few days ago. The happiness of knowing he could go back to school, could see MJ and Ned again was still there, but it was nothing compared to the thought of not being Spider-man.

What didn’t help was someone else was Spider-man and someone else was going to take one for the team. For Peter. This wasn’t what helping people was supposed to be like. He was supposed to be protecting people, not the other way around.

Peter felt MJ put her hand on his shoulder. She leaned in closer to him, their chairs right up against each other. She whispered, looking at him with a way too familiar concerned look. “You alright?”

Peter nodded, smiling at her but MJ’s face didn’t look any less concerned.

“Woah!” Ned exclaimed, “He does kinda look like you!”

Peter’s head shot up and looked at the TV. The Spider-man reveal had happened while he wasn’t paying attention. A guy was standing at the podium in a Spider-man suit, his mask off his face. He did look like Peter, a similar face, similar brown hair but much older looking.

“My name is Peter Parker,” Fake Spider-man was saying, “and I am Spider-man.”

===

The first day of school was just weird. Peter knew it would be weird, how could it not? The world thought he was Spider-man and now the world supposedly knew the truth. It seemed most people believed the press conference. The Daily Bugle seemed to double down on Peter being Spider-man, but in their haste, they were coming across a little too hard. It was much easier to believe Spider-man was a 25-year-old guy from Queens, over the 16-year-old kid. 

It didn’t surprise Peter to know the fake Peter had a life. He caught bits and pieces of it during the week. He knew he would have one, no one would believe it unless there was undeniable proof this guy was a real person. He had an apartment, a job, he had family and friends. He even had a dog named Miss Tiger. He was a whole new person, a new Peter Parker.

Peter wondered how much of it was fake, how much of it was real. No one told him anything and rightfully so, this Peter Parker wouldn’t have any idea who THAT Peter Parker was. He felt like this guy was Peter Parker adjacent in a weird way, despite never having even met him. 

“You ready?” May asked Peter from the front seat of the car. Happy was driving, he had insisted on doing so. Fury had mentioned some additional protection around the school, just in case. They didn’t want to draw attention to Peter in any way but they didn’t want to leave him hanging. Peter thought Happy driving him to school wasn’t helping their case, but he insisted.

“Yeah,” Peter replied, looking out into the sea of students. He really had no idea how this was going to go down. “I see MJ and Ned, so yeah.” He reached over to open the door. “Uh, thanks, May. Happy. See you guys tonight.”

Peter got out of the car, put his head down, and started walking to the front of the building. The reaction Peter received was a bit of a mixed bag. Some people started to point at him, whispering. Others just stared at him, mouths gaped just a little but most of them seemed to just ignore him.

He caught up with Ned and MJ and they walked into the building together. He was grateful for his friends, more than usual, Ned was keeping up a constant stream of words. Setting a nice distraction for Peter, who tried desperately not to notice the other people watching him.

“Do you think it’ll be, like, obvious who they are? I mean will it be like that one sketch with that one actor where it’s so clear he’s an adult? What’s up fellow kids?”

Peter and Ned walked into Chemistry, taking their seats, towards the back of the class. “Peter?” Ned asked and Peter realized he had missed a whole lot of the conversation Ned was having with him. 

“Sorry,” Peter sighed, he didn’t mean to ignore Ned. He didn’t want to ignore Ned but his head was still feeling distracted and a little overwhelmed from the thought of kids still looking at him.

“The secret agents here to protect you, do you think they’ll look like kids?” Ned asked again, with no sense of being annoyed with Peter. 

“Penis Parker!” Flash yelled as he walked into the classroom, eyes narrowing directly at Peter. “I had a good laugh watching people think you were Spider-man. Got something for you, since you really wanted to be Spider-man.”

Flash tossed a pair of Spider-man themed boxer shorts onto the table in front of Peter and Ned. 

“It might take you a little bit to grow into them,” he said, laughing. A few other students started laughing, Peter could feel his face flushing but before he could even think about replying, Mr. Warren walked in behind Flash.

“Mr. Thompson,” he announced walking past Flash and putting his bag onto the table, “can you please retrieve your boxer shorts and take a seat?”

Flash hesitated for a moment. “Would you like me to get your boxer shorts for you, Mr. Thompson?”

“Uh,” he said and Peter felt even worse at that point. Flash quickly walked over and grabbed the boxers off Peter’s table, giving Peter a glare below walking to his seat in the back.

Mr. Warren cleared his throat and turned to the chalkboard to begin class. When class ended Peter and Ned started towards the door but Mr. Warren stopped him as he walked by.

“Mr. Parker?”

“Uh,” Peter said, turning back to the desk.

“Can I talk to you for a moment?” Peter turned and looked over at Ned, who was standing in the door frame. “Just for a minute, I promise to return you safe and sound to Mr. Leeds.”

Peter nodded at Ned, who turned and walked out of the door. “Um,” Peter said awkwardly.

“I just wanted to say, Peter. I understand this school year might be a bit harder for you, then others. With the whole,” he waved his hands around a little, “mistaken identity thing.”

Peter didn’t say anything, he had been given strict instructions to play stupid on this. Don’t really say anything, just act normal. Like you get accused of being a superhero all the time. Totally normal.

“Peter?” Mr. Warren’s voice waded back into his ears. “You alright?”

“Uh, yeah. Sorry.” Peter ran his hand through his hair, stopping with his hand on the back of his neck. 

“If you need to talk about anything, please know my door is always open. This can’t be an easy thing to experience. I can’t say that I’m an expert on these things, but my door is open.” 

Peter nodded. “Thanks, Mr. Warren.”

“Alright then, go on with you.”

Peter smiled at him again before dashing back into the hallway, Ned and MJ waiting for him just outside.

===

“Hey, Peter.”

May walked into his bedroom. Peter was sitting at his computer desk, twirling his pencil in between his fingers, trying to finish his chemistry paper. He looked up at her, as she walked into the room.

“How are you feeling?”

Two weeks had gone by since school started. Peter was slowly starting to feel good about where things were. Yeah, things were still a bit weird, but things were just, okay. The fake Spider-man had gone out on several patrol missions, whoever the guy was, he seemed to do a decent job of things. Peter didn’t like watching it, didn’t like knowing what fake Spider-man was up to.

“Alright,” he answered her.

May sat down on Peter’s bed. “I know this isn’t ideal Peter. I know you want to get back out there as Spider-man. I just wanted to let you know how proud I am of you, that you were okay with this.”

Okay really wasn’t the word Peter would have applied to how he was feeling.

“Thanks,” he said, his voice cracking ever so slightly. “I miss it.”

“Of course you do,” May said, “it’s okay for you to miss it. You’ve done amazing things as Spider-man and you will continue to do amazing things as Spider-man. You just have to wait a little longer.” 

“What’s a little longer, May?” Peter questioned. “Fury said once things die down but he hasn’t said anything else. What if the other guy messes up?”

“Is that what’s bothering you?” May asked. 

Peter shrugged. “I dunno. I just don’t like someone else out there, being Spider-man. It’s my responsibility.”

May smiled at him, a genuine wonderful smile that made Peter feel just a little bit better. “You are Spider-man, that’s not going to change. This guy out there, he’s just taking the heat off Peter Parker for a bit. I want you to be Spider-man, Peter. I just don’t want the world to know you’re Spider-man.” 

“How about this weekend you invite your friends over, you can order out and watch a movie. Be a real teenager for a bit while you have the chance.” May offered, getting up off the bed. “Sound good to you?”

“Yeah May sounds great.”

===

Over the next two weeks, fake Spider-man went on several very visible patrols. It was part of Fury’s plan to “rebrand” the image Beck had leaked to the world. Just as most people believed the fake Peter Parker, they seemed to believe Spider-man was not a supervillain. Sure, Beck had his followers, but the general consensus was more positive than not. 

Ned had been keeping Peter up to date with fake Spider-man’s antics. Peter knew that Ned wasn’t trying to do anything to upset Peter, but it was a lot harder than Peter thought it would be.

Whatever suit they had given fake Spider-man was doing a fair job still. Fury had been true to his word and all of Peter’s suits and gadgets were gone from his room. He still had EDITH however, he had no idea how Happy did it, but it was one of the things Fury didn’t take from him.

His web-shooters were taken too and nearly all of his web fluid. He knew he didn’t even need to tell Fury how to make it, he had already shared that information with Mr. Stark a long time ago. Peter thought he should have seen this coming, he basically gave SHIELD a way to make their own Spider-man if they really wanted to. Well, at least one in a suit. 

Without really trying to Peter started to become obsessed with petty crime reports. He had EDITH feeding him information almost every night. Nothing too important, but just enough. Peter felt like he had to do something. He had to just listen and make sure if he couldn’t be out there being Spider-man, he could at least just keep an eye out.

Peter, Ned, and MJ were sitting in the school library, doing homework. Peter was thinking, distracted by the report of a minor theft at a genetics lab. It was just a break-in, the cops thought it was a disgruntled employee, nothing important was stolen. It was bothering him about it, there had been so many of these lately. He couldn’t shake the feeling something was up.

“Earth to Peter Parker!”

“Uh?” 

“What’d you get for number 11?” Ned asked from across him, his book was open and he was scribbling something on the paper in front of him. “I don’t think I’m right.” 

“Um,” Peter started and then looked at his own homework in front of him.

“Did you even start your Trig homework?” MJ placed the end of her pencil on his arm.

“Yeah,” Peter said, looking down at this very empty worksheet. “No.”

“What’s got you so distracted?” MJ asked, her elbow bumped his but she averted her eyes away from him, back to her homework.

“Nothing,” Peter lied through his teeth, he didn’t like the way MJ and Ned were looking at him. Like they knew he was very clearly lying to them. “I’m gonna go. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

He grabbed his stuff, shoving it into his backpack before high tailing it out of the library. He could feel Ned and MJ’s eyes burning into the back of his skull.

Peter hurried down the hallway, mind still thinking about the robberies. He was heading around the corner when he heard someone, almost shouting.

“What are you doing here?”

He stopped, frozen in place for a moment. He turned around, the hallway was empty. The voice came from one of the classrooms. Should he go look? What if something bad was happening to someone? He walked back, the voices were talking again, his enchanted hearing catching the tone of their voices but he wasn’t close enough to hear them.

He got to Mr. Warren’s door and he could hear them. He leaned against the wall next to the door. Should he be eavesdropping?

“You don’t have to do this,” he heard someone saying, he thought it could be Mr. Warren, maybe someone else.

“If you’d just give me what I want, I wouldn’t have to. I just need a few more things.”

There was a beat of silence and Peter moved a little closer to the closed door.

“You didn’t get it at Westmont?” That was Mr. Warren’s voice for sure, Peter could recognize it now.

The name danced in his head for a moment, where did he hear it from before? He should go, but also, he shouldn’t. Whomever Mr. Warren was talking to, they were having an argument. What if something happened?

“They did, but it wasn’t enough. You can make more, can’t you?”

“Miles,” the other voice replied, “I can, but that’s not the point.”

He heard movement and realized someone was walking towards the door, he moved, quickly down the hallway, not turning back around. He waited until he was outside before reaching into his backpack and pulling out EDITH.

“Edith,” he asked, his mind racing. He just had to check, that’s all. He was most likely wrong. “Bring up the list of labs that had been robbed last week.”

EDITH splashed the building names across the HUD and, just as Peter thought it would be, Westmont Chemicals was on the list.

===

The next day in class Peter felt restless. He watched Mr. Warren at the chalkboard, acting completely normal. Everything was completely normal and that just bothered Peter. Was this just some weird coincidence? I mean, it had to be. Mr. Warren was a high school Chemistry teacher. He didn’t rob buildings. He didn’t have people he knew to rob buildings for him.

“Peeeeeeeeeter,” Ned hissed in his ear. “You are staring at Mr. Warren and it’s creepy.”

Peter looked away, back down to his book.

That night Peter drummed his fingers on this desk, eyeing EDITH where she sat. He took a few deep breaths and then, he made up his mind. He slipped EDITH on.

“Hey Edith,” he asked, “can you tell me everything about Raymond Warren, he’s uh, he’s a teacher at my school.”

“Of course, Peter.”

A second later EDITH began displaying running facts about Mr. Warren, they raced across Peter’s eyesight.

EDITH began to give him a run down. “Raymond Warren, born January 15th, 1962 in Forest Hills, New York. Mother, Monica Williams, deceased, father, Jacob Warren, also deceased. One brother, Miles Warren, currently living in Queens. Citizenship, American. Material status, single. Occupation, High School Chemistry teacher-”

Didn’t he hear Mr. Warren say that name? Miles?

“Anything weird?” Peter said, cutting her off. “Like, anything, um, evil about him? Or some kind of alter ego maybe?”

“None that I’m aware of Peter. Raymond Warren does not have any legal problems, nor does he have any association with other criminals. Would you like me to monitor him?”

“Uh yes,” Peter said, “monitor him but don’t like, let him know or anything. Just if something shady comes up…”

“Yes, Peter. I will alert you if anything shady appears on Raymond Warren.”

The way in which EDITH said it back to Peter made him feel a little stupid but the results made Peter relax just a little.

===

Peter’s suspicion of Mr. Warren waned over the next few days. Peter tried to see if there were any other connections between Mr. Warren and the other robberies but nothing came up. EDITH couldn’t come up with a single link between anything.

A few days later, however, EDITH chimed at Peter. He put the glasses back on.

“What’s up Edith?”

“You asked me to monitor Raymond Warren for you, Peter. His phone pinged at a suspicious location.”

“Define suspicious.”

“The warehouse is abandoned, however, there have been several reports of odd events happening on the premises. Recently two missing teenagers were last reported in the area.”

Okay, Peter thought. That was weird.

Peter bit the bottom of his lip hard. “How far away is it?”

“Three miles away.”

Should he? Should he just go there? He could just, like, be there. He didn’t have to go there as Spider-man, he could just go there as Peter Parker, concerned citizen. There wasn’t even a crime happening, he just wanted to check out where Mr. Warren was hanging out.

“What’s the address?”

It was close to Ned’s place. He checked his watch, 7:30. He could tell May he was heading over to Ned’s house to study. It wasn’t a lie, not really. Not one that counted anyway.

He waited long enough to just sit on his hands. He could just check this out and that’s it. If it’s nothing, then it’s nothing.

His mind already made up, he walked out of his bedroom door.

===

Peter went on foot, he was a nobody. Just an average guy, walking down the street. He walked past a newsstand, the words, “WHO IS Spider-man REALLY?” across them. One had the fake Peter Parker’s face on it, a candid shot of him, Spider-man suit on, mask off.

“We’re here,” EDITH said to him as he walked into the abandoned parking lot. It was very clear, however, that something was going on in the building.

“Where’s Mr. Warren?” Peter asked EDITH as he crept very slowly around the side of the building.

EDITH didn’t need to answer him, half a second later the front door opened and Mr. Warren walked out, talking to someone next to him.

“Shit,” Peter hissed, he wasn’t in their view, but he wasn’t exactly hiding. He quickly scattered behind an abandoned car.. He was trying to keep Mr. Warren in his view and close enough to hear.

He only caught the last few seconds of the conversation. “Trust me, Miles,” Mr. Warren was saying.

“Miles,” EDITH said to him, “is Raymond Warren’s brother.” 

“Thanks,” Peter responded, he missed the next few words exchanged. Mr. Warren was opening the car door, standing beside it. “You’re smart enough to do this the right way.”

“And you think your way is the right way?”

“I think my way is the best way. The safer way.”

A loud noise from behind Peter startled him, there was someone coming from behind him. He turned around, there were two guys standing a few feet behind him. There wasn’t much light, Peter was mostly hidden, but he could see the guys and they could clearly see him.

“Uh,” he started, “dropped my car keys.” He attempted to look around the ground for his keys if he could just get away without having to do anything. “Found um!”

He turned and started walking away quickly, in the opposite direction of where Mr. Warren and his brother were still standing. 

“You have two men following you, Peter.”

“Yeah,” Peter said. “I’m aware.” He risked a look behind him, the guys were still walking towards him. 

“Hey wait,” one of them called out and Peter started to jog a little bit faster. “Thought you were gonna take a car?”

“Uh, you know what I just realized? I didn’t drive here. I walked. Thanks!” 

Peter turned the corner and his spider-sense flared. Another guy had just rounded the corner, coming towards him. He stopped, pivoted, and started to cross in the middle of the street. One of the guys had already caught up to him, he had something in his hand, and Peter couldn’t tell what it was.

If he had his web-shooters he’d be able to get out, but he didn’t. His wrists were annoying bare. He would either have to fight his way out or run for it. Neither seemed all that appealing, but running might be his best bet.

“Those are some nice glasses, kid.” One of the guys said to him, coming closer. He looked Peter up and down. “Why don’t you come over and talk to us?”

“Sorry,” Peter countered, “stranger danger.”

The guy moved quickly but Peter moved, dodging whatever the goon had swung at him, it definitely wasn’t his fist. Without his goggles, it was hard to concentrate on where everyone was standing. He forgot how much the suit really helped him when he needed it. He could still do this, Spider-man wasn’t the suit, it was really him.

“Don’t beat him up too much,” one of them was saying, “the boss might want to keep this one.”

Peter did not like how that sounded, not at all.

“Sorry, already taken,” Peter said, he dodged the other guy again. They were very slowly backing him down an alleyway. Peter had to find a way out and run. It was the exact opposite of every instinct in his body. Spider-man would stay and web these guys up, so they couldn’t hurt anyone else. Spider-man did not run away, Peter Parker did not run away.

“Your heart rate appears to be-“

“Yeah,” Peter hissed, cutting EDITH off again. “I know.”

One of them was talking, again and then, Peter heard the guy say the name. He heard the guy say, Warren. It was clear and it took Peter by surprise so much he stopped moving altogether and looked at the guy who said it.

“What,” Peter started, but didn’t get to finish his sentence.

When the bat connected to the side of his head, Peter actually saw it coming, but it was a little too late. His entire head exploded in sound, color, and light. He almost fell, wobbled, staggered, and did everything he could to orientate himself to something.

EDITH had fallen off his face and he could feel blood already on his temples. He dropped to the ground, desperate to find EDITH. The guys were reaching for him once he was down, but Peter held on to the last bit of luck he had and managed to both grab EDITH from the sidewalk and get up and out. 

He started to run, eyes closing while he did so and then opening quickly because he needed to actually see where he was going. Maybe if his head wasn’t clogged up, he could sense where he was. But not, not now. Now he was lucky he was putting two feet in front of another. It took every ounce of strength for him to keep standing, keep moving forward.

Peter’s brain felt like it was rebooting, stuck on the loading screen for way too long as he ran down the dark street. Why wasn’t EDITH talking to him? Wasn’t Ned’s place around here too? The blood was flowing down his face still, it felt weird on his skin. Why did head wounds have to bleed so much?

He knew where he was, he could tell. He’d been here before…Ned. Yes, Ned lived the next block over. He could feel it, he took himself there on whatever spider-sense instinct he was able to muster up. He got to Ned’s building and looked up, Ned lived on the second floor. There was a fire escape because sometimes, just sometimes Peter’s luck actually holds on just long enough.

He hesitated before going up it. Would someone see him? Has anyone actually looked at him? At this point, wasn’t the side of his head covered in blood, and had he not just ran down several city blocks to get here? 

Peter was up and at Ned’s window quickly and a little more clumsy than usual. He leaned against the glass when he arrived. His entire body was screaming at him now, just stop and take a nap. If Ned was on the other side, he would just see Peter’s squished up face against the window. Ned would have found it really funny, Peter knew it. He scrambled to open the window from the outside. He’d done it before, it was easy, he just needed his brain to get past the loading screen and communicate a little bit better with his hands.

The window opened finally and Peter shoved it up as far as he could before he just fell straight into the bedroom. No gracefulness, just straight up falling face-first into the floor. At least now he was laying down, he wanted to be laying down.

“Oooooo,” He said out loud, his head hurt more than before. “Ned?” He called out and for a second had the fear he just crashed into a complete stranger’s bedroom. Was this Ned’s room? He couldn’t tell, the lights were too bright, everything was just a little too bright.

“Peter?” He heard and then footsteps, it sounded like Ned. A door opened and then, “MJ!!” he heard Ned saying, Peter tried to sit up to tell Ned that no, he was Peter, not MJ. 

“Shit,” he thought he had heard MJ saying, but that was silly because he was at Ned’s house.

“It’s me, Peter,” he tried saying but then darkness started creeping in his vision before he could find out if Ned heard him.

===

“Do you like, think he’s healing already? Should we do what the internet says?” 

Peter could hear talking again, words flowing in and out. He started to open his eyes, Ned and MJ were kneeling next to him. MJ’s hands were holding something against his temple. He felt really heavy and really far away from them like he was sinking in quicksand. No wait, quicksand doesn’t work the way it does in cartoons. So not quicksand, but something else that makes you sink. Mud?

“Hey MJ,” he said, she looked down at him. Man, he thought, she was really pretty. “I may have hurt my head.”

MJ’s eyes went very wide for a moment, Peter thought she looked funny and he laughed, it hurt. “Ow.”

“I’m going to kill you, Peter Parker. I’m going to keep you from dying and then I’m going to actually kill you.”

“Coooooool,” Peter said and then closed his eyes again. 

===

The next time Peter was aware, he felt a hell of a lot worse again. His head was relentlessly pounding. His brain was rattling around in his head. Sensory overload again, the lights were too bright, the room was too loud.

“It’s okay Peter,” he heard someone say. He peeked his eyes open, the light in the room had gone down. “We turned the lights down, sorry.”

Had he asked them to? Was someone reading his mind?

“So, it’s been like an hour. If you could just wake up for a little bit and drink more water, that would be great. Also, can you stop throwing up? It’s really gross.”

Peter tried moving a little and then, oh there was a whole lot of nausea happening. He thought he’d only moved his head up but it felt like he took off running at 100mph, spinning in circles. His mouth tasted funny, he stuck his tongue out and gagged. 

“Okay, no, don’t move again. Throwing up bad. My mom is going to kill me if you ruin my carpet. We’d never get our security deposit back.”

Peter stopped moving. He tried opening his eyes a bit more. He looked up and saw MJ’s face directly above him. He smiled at her and she smiled back. “Hiya.”

She laughed a little delirious laugh and looked away from Peter for a second. Peter followed her gaze to see Ned kneeling beside him, hovering over Peter now too. “Hiya.” He said again, this time to Ned. 

They both looked as if they’d been crying. The side of Peter’s face also felt wet. Had he been crying too? Did they watch a sad movie? “Why you guys so sad?”

“Well,” Ned stated, “I heard a loud noise coming from my room and when I got here, you fell through the window and then took a nap.”

“Oh,” Peter responded, yeah that’s what happened. “MJ?” He questioned, looking at her. Did she fall through the window too? 

“I was already over,” she answered. He knew it, he knew they were meeting and discussing him behind his back. That was super rude.

“Peter Parker Protection Committee. Super rude,” Peter said out loud, not really meaning to. He didn’t have control of what he was doing still. He was still sinking away from his own body, struggling to get back in there.

“Sure, if that’s what you want to call it. We were talking about what a reckless idiot you can be and I was actually defending your honor and then you have the gals to show up bleeding and with a concussion. It’s like, you have some kind of sixth sense about things.”

MJ was babbling a little bit and Peter didn’t really know why. He coughed and god, that made everything hurt so much more. Why did that make it worse?

“Peter tingle,” he tried to correct her. It was his Peter Tingle, that’s what his sense was.

“Okay, never say that again. Ever.”

He might have closed his eyes again because a second later or possibly hours later he heard her a bit louder. “Peter, are you okay? You are mumbling a little.”

“Um, yes?” Peter took inventory for a second. Head hurt, felt like vomiting but his brain seemed to come back online. Things were still a bit unsure still, but he knew who he was and where he was. Those are the most important things to know.

“That sounded like a question, I need an actual answer.”

“Yes,” Peter said with much more force in his voice. He realized at that moment he was laying on Ned’s floor, his head in MJ’s lap. He tried to move a little and let out a hiss of pain. Oh, that hurt.

“Can you drink some water? We asked Edith and she said to give you water. She also said to call someone but…” MJ trailed looking at Ned, “we didn’t.”

“Yeah,” Peter said, allowing Ned to bring a bottle of water at his mouth. He lifted his head up, he could feel MJ supporting his shoulders and neck as he drank some water. It felt good, it washed away the gross taste in his mouth, just a little. 

“We should have,” MJ started looking over at Ned again. They started to talk back and forth, Peter was having a hard time following the conversation when they weren’t talking directly at him. 

“May?” Peter questioned, a memory of himself leaving the house started to come into his mind. He told May he would be at Ned’s, he’s at Ned’s now, so not lying after all. Someone should still tell her, it’s late. 

“She called you. I told her you are spending the night to work on homework,” Ned answered him.

“Good bro.”

He used to have sleepovers at Ned’s house a lot, they’d use sleeping bags in his living room. Stay up late and watch movies, eat a lot of junk food. Even before he got super-fast metabolism Peter could take down a lot of junk food. It was an acquired skill. The thought made Peter smile again and he felt like he was floating now, in good happy memory.

===

“Oh god,” Peter croaked, his throat so very dry. He felt something move from underneath him and he opened his eyes. Ned was above him this time and Peter had enough senses to know his head was now laying in Ned’s lap.

“Drink,” he heard Ned saying from above. He reached for the water bottle Ned was holding for him and this time he could lift his head upon his own to drink from it. In fact, he could sit up now too, if he really wanted to.

“You guys okay?” he asked Ned, putting his head back down into the cross of Ned’s ankles where it had been before. His friends made good pillows. He would have to take advantage of that again, at a time he didn’t have a head wound. 

“Are you really asking the person who doesn’t have a concussion if they are okay?”

Peter nodded his head, he closed his eyes again. “Sorry,” Peter replied.

“We’re both fine, dude. We just need you to be fine now too.”

“Okay, sure.”

===

The next time Peter opened his eyes, he felt almost normal. He was in MJ’s lap again, he could tell that from the sweet smell of her shampoo before he even opened his eyes. He looked up, she was holding a book above his head. 

“You’re reading when I’m concussing?” Peter accused her. 

He felt MJ jump slightly, she put the book down. “Or,” she said, “you concussing yourself is getting in the way of my education.”

“Eh,” Peter said and tried his best to shrug. “Can I sit up?”

“I don’t know,” MJ said, “can you try? Last time you did, you threw up all over Ned and it was really gross.”

Peter winced, he did not remember haven thrown up. This time, however, he was able to sit up, the room only spinning a bit out of control before everything came into sharp focus. His head hurt a lot less but things weren’t normal by any means.

He looked at MJ, she was sitting with her back up against the edge of Ned’s bed. He could hear Ned snoring softly from above. The room was dark, lights off but the curtains pulled away from the window let just enough street light into the room for MJ to have read by. Her face was a little pale, her eyes a little bit red and well, of course, they were. He’d come into the room bleeding and hurt.

“Ned said you have super healing?” She questioned him again, head slightly tilted to the side.

“Yeah,” Peter responded, “well, I guess. Yeah.” Words were still hard to say, he knew what he wanted to say but they felt like they were taking a long time to make it out of his mouth.

“Still hurts though,” she said to him, “you looked like you were in a lot of pain. Which at this point, I think you deserve.”

He was mad at himself, he didn’t want MJ to have to deal with this. He didn’t even want Ned to have to deal with this. He wanted no one to have to deal with this. That’s why he’s Spider-man, to prevent people from having to deal with things like this. 

“Sorry,” Peter finally said because, well, it’s his favorite word. “Sorry, I didn’t want you to… have to, you know.” He gestured to himself with his hands. He went to run them back through his hair but his head was still sticky with blood.

MJ took a very long and very deep breath before starting. “What were you doing out there?”

Peter rolled his shoulders, slowly starting to gain a better sense of his own body. “I was investigating a lead.” He answered, truthfully.

“A lead about what?” MJ questioned her eyes narrowing on his. 

He wasn’t going to lie to her, she deserved a whole lot better than that, but things were still unclear in his mind. He didn’t think he could even get all the words out right now, even if he tried. “Can,” he started, he had to close his eyes again, feeling a bit woozy. “Can we talk tomorrow?”

She sighed loudly, letting out a very long breath. “Yes, we are talking tomorrow. You are telling me and Ned every last thing that’s been going on in that big stupid brain of yours.”

Peter felt like a jerk suddenly, a feeling that made his stomach drop. “Sorry.”

MJ moved, pushed away from the bed, and leaned forward, her lips awkwardly making contact with his, just for a second. She backed away quickly making a face. “Ew.”

Peter laughed, “Yeah well, I did throw up not too long ago. Your fault.”

“Can you,” Ned said suddenly, his face coming into view over the edge of his bed, “not make out on my bedroom floor? Haven’t I suffered enough today?”

===

Peter was much better by the time he actually woke up the next day. It was well into the afternoon, he was still laying on Ned’s floor, but now he had actual pillows and blankets. When he got up, Ned all but shoved him into the shower.

“MJ said the internet says to make sure you don’t drown, but I think you’ll be fine,” Ned told him, he handed Peter some towels and a change of clothes. Peter had left a bag of clothing at Ned’s a while ago, just in case he needed them after patrolling. He was glad Ned had faith in him still.

The shower was nice, the water was warm and it made Peter feel good. He tried not to stay too long, didn’t want to use up all the hot water. After he was changed, he walked into the kitchen. MJ and Ned were sitting at the kitchen table, a half-eaten pizza between them.

Peter sat down and reached for a slice. It was hours since he last ate and especially after the concussion, his body was craving some type of food.

“Should you be eating that?” MJ questioned, “I did a whole lot of research on concussions last night,” she added a glare there, “and I thought it said to avoid pizza. In fact, I think it specifically said not to eat pizza.”

Peter took a bite. “Enhanced abilities,” he answered her, “I’m alright.”

They were all quiet for a moment, Peter eating the pizza slice while Ned and MJ just stared at him like he was a circus show. He swallowed, tried to reach for another piece but MJ cleared her throat and he pulled his hand back.

Oh yeah, he owed them an explanation, didn’t he.

Peter took a really deep breath and then just told them everything. Word vomited the entire story out, from the start. He explained how he felt something was going on, he just couldn’t find all the pieces. Explained what he saw, what he heard. MJ and Ned were quiet the entire time, listening to Peter as he laid out the entire thing.

When he finished, he looked down at his hands, not wanting to see what his friends were thinking about him.

“If you’re going to do this, you have to let us help.”

Peter didn’t know what to expect, but it wasn’t that. “What?”

“If you want to go out there and do stuff, you have to tell us. Guy in the chair, remember? Especially if we’re doing this behind everyone’s backs. You need someone out there helping you.” 

“You’re not mad at me?”

“Oh no,” MJ said, shooting him daggers with her eyes, “we’re mad. Very, very mad at you. However, we also decide as a group that we don’t want you to die.”

“That’s nice,” Peter said and grabbed another pizza slice.

===

They had worked out a way to keep an eye out on Mr. Warren, as well as any other crimes.

They split up the duties, Ned would keep up on any more weird robberies, MJ was going to keep up on other crimes. She already had a police radio, Peter wasn’t surprised in the slightest. EDITH was going to keep tabs on Mr. Warren and alert Peter if anything weird was going on.

And Peter was going to, well not do anything stupid. That was exactly what they told him to do. They also told him he should tell Happy about what he heard, but Peter refused. Nope, it would open a can of worms. Peter was going to still go out, of course, at this point there was no stopping him. He would just go out as Peter Parker, just that.

He had to be careful still, the news had the fake Peter’s face all over it and sometimes, his name came up again. He knew if someone saw him out there, even just helping people, giving up Spider-man would have been for nothing. He wore a really old ski mask that Ned bought at a thrift store most nights. It made him look scary, rather than helpful.

Before they parted Fury had threatened to send Peter back into space if that’s what it took to stop him from being Spider-man. The joke was on Fury, Peter had thought, he was still Spider-man last time he went there.

Meanwhile, Peter couldn’t seem to escape the fake Spider-man. There were endless videos of him being shared, since the reveal he was a fixture on TV every single night. He wasn’t nearly as smooth with some moves. Peter watched him rescue some people from a fire, only thinking about how he could have done it a bit faster, better even.

The news was relentless with Spider-man, especially the Daily Bugle. The words “WHO IS PETER PARKER?” were splashed everywhere Peter seemed to look. Peter almost felt as if they were mocking him. It made him feel like Beck all over again, not knowing what was real and what wasn’t. He had swum with it, it sloshed around his dreams.

He was starting to feel like the old Peter Parker, the original Peter Parker.

The next day, however, as he stood in front of the mirror by the living room door, he felt nothing like Peter Parker. He was wearing a button-down shirt May had bought him, it was a really ugly tan color that Peter did not like but May said it looked “adorable” on him. His hair was gelled down, maybe a little too much. He felt like a sleazy mob boss, he tried patting at it, it didn’t help.

May was beaming at him by the door, Happy was standing next to her. It gave Peter a painful memory of her and Ben, not too many years ago. Watching him get ready for his first day at school. 

“You know this is not our first date, or like prom or anything right?” He questioned the two of them, looking away before the sight of them made him feel worse.

He was right, after all. He’d gone out on a date with MJ in the past, but this was a little bit different. Happy had arranged for them to eat at some fancy restaurant that Peter had never even heard of and was going to drive them there in a big limo. Peter had asked for Happy’s help, he felt like he needed to really apologize to MJ for everything.

See, dating me isn’t all bloodshed and mayhem! 

“I know,” May said, smiling at him, “you’re just growing up so fast.”

Peter turned to the door. “Okay, well, let's go then.”

Happy drove him to pick up MJ when she came to the door her Mom was also hovering behind her. She said hi to Peter, Peter smiled at Mrs. Jones but before he could say anything, he saw the look in MJ’s eyes that told him she’d rather they just go ahead and leave now. 

MJ looked beautiful, always. She was wearing dark pants and a very nice flowy shirt top thing. She had on the necklace Peter had given her, broken and all. It made a weird butterfly feeling start at the bottom of his stomach. 

“You look beautiful,” Peter said as they got into the limo. He thought he heard Happy make an ‘awe’ sound before he shut the door. 

“Thanks,” MJ said. She looked around the back seat of the extra-large limo Happy was driving them in. “Oh uh, you look good too.”

“Thanks,” Peter replied and then, in a horrific moment, realized he could not think of anything else to even say to her. The limo felt really big and that he had to quickly fill up as much space as he could, so he didn’t bore MJ to death.

MJ, in all her wonderfulness, started talking about homework and a Spanish test, and Peter was able to cobble enough thoughts together to talk to her. When they arrived at the very fancy restaurant, Happy let them out of the car.

“We can walk home,” Peter said to him as Happy shut the door behind them. Happy nodded, smiling at the two of them with the look of a proud parent. 

“If you change your mind, call me.”

Happy disappeared back into the limo, while Peter and MJ stood in front of the restaurant.

“So,” Peter said, looking at the building in front of him, this wasn’t really what he wanted, this wasn’t really what MJ wanted, was it? He went with his gut, “Wanna just get a hot dog or something?”

“Hell yes,” MJ said smiling at him. 

They walked down the street, MJ’s hand making its way into Peter’s only after a few steps. They stopped at a street vendor, grabbed two hot dogs, fries and drinks before walking off again. The conversation this time was much easier to manage, now that he wasn’t in the limo anymore. Peter had once helped the very same hot dog vendor when someone hit his cart. He told MJ the story, which wasn't really all that impressive but she acted impressed in all the right places anyway. 

They stopped at a park to eat their food, sitting side by side on the swings. It was starting to get colder out, not cold enough for jackets. He kept checking to make sure MJ didn’t look cold, he should have brought a jacket with him, just in case. 

“You’re looking happier lately,” MJ said, finishing the last of her fries. Peter handed his over to her and she took them.

“Thanks to you guys,” he replied, “I couldn’t do this on my own.”

MJ looked down at her feet for a moment. “Can I ask you a stupid question?”

“I don’t think you’ve ever asked a stupid question in your life,” Peter said to her, truthfully and MJ totally blushed. Peter was very proud of himself. That was smooth.

“Okay,” she said in a weird voice like she was trying to avoid smiling too much. “Why do you… why Spider-man?”

He thought she’d ask how maybe, ask him what happened to turn him into this, but she went with why instead. An old conversation filtered through Peter’s mind, once upon a time Mr. Stark asked him the same question, and the answer hadn’t changed.

“Before,” Peter started, he put his drink down on the ground so he could hold onto the swing’s ropes. He needed to do something with his hands so he didn’t fidget so much. “Before Spider-man, I was just some kid and bad things happened to people I loved. Then I got these powers and could do all these cool things, but bad things still happened to people I love. So, I became Spider-man, so I can do all these cool things and make sure bad things don’t happen to other people.”

MJ was silent and then she very quickly reached over and took Peter’s hand in hers again. “You are a ridiculously good person, Peter Parker. It sort of makes me sick to my stomach.”

She squeezed his hand and he laughed at her, squeezing it right back. They started to swing together, slowly.

“I don’t always feel that way,” Peter admitted, feeling oddly truthful, “Even when I’m trying to do the right thing, bad things still happen. You guys almost get killed, I almost get shot in the head.”

“What?” MJ asked quickly. Oh yeah, Peter realized, he never actually told her what happened on the bridge. At least, not everything that happened. He didn’t like to tell people those things, didn’t want them to have to worry. Peter’s okay, he’s fine, no need to worry about things that are way over. 

“Beck,” Peter responded looking at her, “he didn’t actually shoot me or anything. I stopped him. Moved the gun out of the way. It was pretty cool, really.”

“You have a very warped sense of what’s considered cool.”

“Wasn’t so bad,” Peter said, lying just a little bit, “I mean, I’ve been to space and fought a giant Grimace alien too. That was way more terrifying.”

“I dunno,” MJ pushed off the ground a little, starting to swing a bit, “I think Beck was scarier than an evil purple raisin. I mean, Beck was a real live person. He was a human, you trusted him. I think normal people are far scarier. You trust them so easily and then bam, they turn out to be pretty crappy.”

MJ might be just as messed up as he was sometimes. It was a little comforting, just as it was terrifying.

“People do suck,” Peter replied. “If you ever need to talk about crappy people. You can talk to me.”

“If you wanted to talk about some of the more crazy things that you’ve been through. I’m all ears. The angry looking pirate made me sign an NDA, so it should be cool.”

Peter laughed, he was so very lucky to have MJ around. He really wished that she knew that. 

“Did you hear about the time where I beat up Captain American’s best friends in an airport in Germany?” He asked, her eyes widened ever so slightly.

“Oh no,” she smiled, “do tell.”

“Okay, well, one of them had wings and the other had a metal arm...”

===

Peter had a theory, that when things are going too well, that just means bad things are starting to gather, ready to ruin whatever Peter wanted in his life. That’s just the way life happened to him. It was hard coded in his DNA, things go well until they don’t.

The deformed bodies started showing up a week later, they were barely discernable as humans. It was big news, taking over all the headlines. No one knew what was happening, no one had any answers. The robberies stopped around then too, Peter knew there was some sort of connection, but not even EDITH could find one. 

They still couldn’t find one linking Mr. Warren to anything either. They couldn’t find a lot of information on his brother either, several years ago he had a biotech start-up, but it had shut down over a year ago. After that, he just seemed to float between jobs, disappearing into the city of New York.

He thought about telling Happy about their suspicions but knew he’d have more questions than Peter wanted to answer. He just had to get a little more proof, that’s all. Go with something concrete and then it wouldn’t matter just how they got the info.

The fake Peter was still doing things. Press conferences, meet and greets, a lot of outside the mask stuff. It annoyed Peter, how was he going to go back to being Spider-man if this guy kept putting his face out there. Aren’t people going to notice a completely different attitude out of him when he did return? It was almost exhausting to hear about it. He’d look at pictures in the newspaper and videos on TV of someone else wearing his outfit, wearing his colors. It was like looking at a movie of his life, a script that he never got to read. 

He started having nightmares as the weeks went on. He had nightmares before, he was Peter Parker after all. This time he was running around, trying to find someone but he kept failing. He’d try to shoot webs but nothing would come out. He’d try to run, but his legs would give out. Instead of being able to help, a fake Peter would show up. He looked like Peter but he wasn’t and that Peter would save the day. He’d wake up breathing heavy, not remembering where he was or who he was.

He hated it, he absolutely hated it. No one was giving him any answers either. He asked Happy a million times when he could be Spider-man again. He was certain Happy was going to break up with May just so he didn’t have to see Peter again. He even text Fury one evening but never got a reply. He may have been just a little bit okay with that fact.

Ned and MJ were trying to keep him sane. They still helped him as best they could, but he could tell they didn’t think anything was really happening. He knew at this point, they were just playing along to make sure Peter didn’t do something stupid again.

===

They had a sub in Chemistry one day and it actually took Peter by surprise. After class, he went into the bathroom, slipped on EDITH, and asked her to find where Warren went. EDITH reported back to him a few minutes later, tracking the GPS on his phone, Mr. Warren was out in the city today. 

The deformed bodies were still showing up, just less frequent and they still had no idea what it all meant. All they had were little pieces to a big puzzle. This was a little piece, Peter was going to hold onto.

“Mr. Warren isn’t sick,” Peter said to MJ and Ned at lunch, as they put their food trays on the table. “He’s out in the city.”

“Okay,” MJ said, before taking a bite of her food, “he’s allowed to like, do things outside of school.” 

“Yeah, but, he’s supposed to be sick,” Peter exclaimed as if that was all the evidence in the world of wrongdoing. “He lied.” 

“Hm,” MJ said, pilfering a plum off Peter’s plate, “how many times have you lied about being sick?” 

“That’s different…” Peter said, “Teachers aren’t supposed to lie.”

MJ opened her mouth to rebuttal but she didn’t get the chance. 

“Woah!” Ned said, “Guys, look.”

He flipped his phone around, so MJ and Peter could see what he’d been looking at. The video showed fake Spider-man fighting a bunch of big guys. They looked off, it was hard to see them, the video was taken by a bystander. 

“Yeah,” Peter started, looking away. MJ was giving Ned a look, he figured she’d told him to stop sharing these videos. “He’s just -”

But before he could finish, the rest of the cafeteria erupted into a symphony of sounds. Everyone had their phones out, different news feeds were playing. The room was really loud and it made Peter flinch. He could feel MJ put her hand on his leg and squeeze it slightly. Ned still had his phone facing them and Peter looked back at it.

Fake Spider-man was getting his ass kicked, it was very obvious that this guy was not doing well right now. The bad guys, whoever they were, were strong and they were throwing fake Spider-man around like a rag doll. They were even damaging the metal suit he was wearing, it was supposed to be strong, but it clearly wasn’t strong enough. It was the weirdest feeling of deja vu Peter had ever experienced, it made him feel sick to his stomach. 

Peter could feel his face getting flush watching it and MJ squeezed her hand on his leg again. It was stupid, the thought that then crossed his mind, isn’t this exactly what Fury wanted? Spider-man live on TV fighting bad guys, while Peter Parker was eating lunch. No one was looking at him anymore, they hadn’t been in a while. Wasn’t this proof enough now? Did this guy have to die just to save Peter?

The fake Spider-man’s mask was ripping off his face and all Peter could think was, this guy looks just like me. That looks like me. He wondered if he was feeling what May did, or Mr. Stark did anytime Peter had gotten hurt. As the mask kept getting ripped, it was very clearly not Peter Parker. His suit was coming apart too, the metal weakened from the repeated blows. Without it, he would be defenseless. His eye darted around the video, looking at every aspect of it. If he could recognize where it was maybe he could get there and help, fake Peter was just some guy, he couldn’t last much longer now, could he?

Peter knew what he had to do, he could go out there and help him. He could be someone else, he could just swoop in. Hey look, Spider-man’s twin brother. Surprise, there’s two of us!

“Peter,” MJ said, Peter heard it as if she was miles away. He realized then, he had stood up and MJ was pulling on his arm. “Peter, sit down. You can’t get up and go now. You have to sit down.” 

Peter tried really hard to get himself to sit down. Ned had moved his phone away, put it face down on the table so Peter wouldn’t have to look anymore. But it was everywhere, everyone was shouting and talking about it. He could hear the news feeds going on and god, what if he dies. What if fake Spider-man dies? It would all be his fault.

He was on the move in a heartbeat, out of the cafeteria and into the hallway. MJ and Ned were behind him, he could hear them running. He could see students getting out of his way and he didn’t really care if they were looking at him funny. He pushed through the doors in front of him, bursting into the empty gym. MJ and Ned were right behind him calling out his name.

“Peter, you have to relax. He’ll be okay.”

“No!” Peter shouted. “He’s going to die because of me.”

“Peter,” MJ said, she looked a little scared. Her eyes were a little wet. “You need to breathe.”

He kept going, all the feelings boiling up inside of him. “No. No. I can’t let him die. I can’t just not be Spider-man and let someone else die. No one is allowed to die anymore. All because I can’t be trusted to be both Peter Parker and Spider-man. Tony trusted me! He thought I’d always do the right thing and now I’m doing nothing! And now someone is going to die!”

Every time he closed his eyes he saw a million different images. He saw Mr. Stark in a field, dying. He saw his parents, walking away and never coming back. He saw Uncle Ben alive and Uncle Ben dead. He saw the signs WHO IS PETER PARKER and he saw Spider-man, getting beaten up. Bloodied and bruised because of him. He was supposed to be protecting people and now he’s just letting other people handle his battles.

He started to feel like he couldn’t breathe anymore like the room was closing down on him again. Like the entire building was falling on him. Like a train was about to hit him. His senses were going absolutely crazy, he wasn’t moving but the whole building was spinning around him. 

“Peter.” He heard MJ’s voice. “Peter, just open your eyes for a minute, okay?”

Peter didn’t realize he had his eyes closed so tightly. He opened them, he was standing in the gym still. Ned and MJ were standing perfectly still across from him, they looked just as freaked out as they did when he stumbled into Ned’s bedroom with a head injury. 

Peter sat down, hard. “Breathe,” MJ said to him, they both dropped to their knees in front of him. “You are having a panic attack and that’s fine. You just need to breathe and stop yelling about Spider-man.”

Peter nodded, breathing as deeply as he could. “Spider-man is alive,” Ned said to him, “some other people got there and they saved him. The dude’s fine.”

Peter nodded again, trying to sear the words into his brain. They have to be real. “We called Happy,” Ned continued, “You are freaking us out a lot dude.”

He must be if they called Happy. They didn’t call him when they thought he was dying. MJ and Ned sat down beside him, Ned was glancing down at this phone. MJ reached over and grabbed Peter’s hand again, squeezing it. He could feel tears in his eyes, threatening to leak out if he didn’t slow down his own brain for a moment.

“Sorry,” Peter finally said after several long heartbeats. “Sorry.”

“We got you,” Ned said, placing his arm on Peter’s, “we’re in the chair. We got this. You just breathe, dude.”

Peter nodded and let his eyes close again, his head pounding behind his eyes but at least he could breathe again and the room felt a lot bigger than it had only moments ago. MJ’s hand on his own was tethering him back to Earth. Ned’s hand stayed on Peter’s arm too and it was so helpful and perfect, Peter couldn’t even find the words to tell them both.

===

When Happy arrived to pick them up, he had the same look he had when he picked up Peter in the middle of a random field. Concerned and worried, maybe a little annoyed even. A long time ago, this would have been Mr. Stark coming to save him, but now it’s Happy. And that’s fine, really. He liked Happy a lot, but it made miss Mr. Stark a little more.

Happy brought them back to Peter’s apartment. Peter didn’t know how they got out of school, but he’s sure Happy just did some magic hand waving at the school. As they drove back, Ned and MJ kept up a very steady stream of talking. Nothing about Spider-man, mostly about the merits exact copy remakes vs slightly different remakes. They had watched the Evil Dead movies a few weeks ago, along with the remake. 

“I liked the new one,” Peter added and both of them looked really surprised he had been paying attention. “I missed seeing Bruce Campbell but the cameo at the end was worth it.”

When they arrived at his apartment, May was also in there. Peter should have seen this coming a mile away. She hugged him really tightly and all but manhandled him into the couch. MJ and Ned sat next to him, MJ slipping her hand into his. He felt a flush coming back up in his face. 

Happy began to talk about the fake Spider-man, explaining that he was okay. Fury came in, helped him and he’s in some facility now, getting expert medical help. Peter nodded and then cut in. “I don’t like it. I don’t think he should be doing it anymore.”

Happy and May exchanged looks and then Happy started. “I actually agree with you kid, I think it’s well past this guy’s time to shine. But we’re not in charge here right now, we’ve got to play by their rules.”

“He’ll be okay, really?” Peter questioned, looking straight into Happy’s eyes. He would not lie to him, he knew it. 

“Yeah, kid. He’s fine. He will be fine,” he said, “Right now I’m more worried about you.”

He could feel MJ squeezing his hand still. His head was still reeling a little, his senses a bit overloaded. He felt like he’d just been struck by lightning, there was a buzz underneath his skin he couldn’t seem to get rid of. 

“I just, I saw and,” he started, faltered a bit in the first few words. He ran his other hand through his hair, god, was he sweating so much. He fidgeted around for a minute. “I just needed some air for a second.”

He didn’t know how else to continue, he felt a little embarrassed now. He was going to have to keep track of how often he fell apart in front of friends and family. He wondered if there was bingo game they could play, fill in the sqarue for each time Peter does something stupid or embarssing or had a public meltdown.

“When he heard that Spider-man was injured, he just got up and freaked out,” MJ supplied, “he got up and ran. Ned and I chased him down, he made it into the gym and had a panic attack.” 

Peter nodded, yes, thank you MJ. “Yeah,” he echoed. “I just, it was too much, I guess.”

Happy reached over and put his hand on Peter’s knee. “It’s alright, kid. I don’t think anyone realized how hard it was going to be for you. We get it now, we’ll figure something out.”

“I’m sorry Peter,” May said and Peter felt really terrible now, he didn’t want them to apologize. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, he wasn’t mad.

“I’m not mad,” he said, “it is fine. I’m fine. I’m totally fine.”

Peter was a smart guy, he knew no one in the world believed that for a hot minute. At least they were nice enough to pretend they believed him.

“We’ll figure it out,” May echoed again, “let’s just relax. Ned, MJ, you two want to stay for dinner tonight? I can talk to your parents about your school escape. We can watch some movies, I’ll order out.”

It sounded all very good and very normal, which was very much what Peter wanted. 

===

Later that night Peter sat in his bed, legs stretched out in front of him. EDITH on, looking at information on the fight fake Spider-man had been in. MJ and Ned had left an hour ago, after eating a lot of pizza and watching a movie. May and Happy were on the other side of Peter’s closed bedroom door, sitting on the couch watching TV.

He fought with himself about watching any more of the footage. Happy told him not to worry about it, that everything was taken care of. Peter still wanted to know, he wanted to look at it and memorized it. So it never happened again, he could find out who these guys were and he could stop them.

The guys the fake Spider-man were fighting were definitely enhanced in some way. They were big guys, they all looked a bit… off. Peter really couldn’t put his finger on exactly why it was just something about the way they moved in front of him. The sense of deja vu wasn’t just coming from watching the fake Spider-man, the guys made him feel that way too. 

He played around with EDITH for a few more minutes, had her look up more information. She didn’t have much and he was just about to call it a night when he noticed something he hadn’t before. One of the videos EDITH had found was from after the fight, the news cameras surrounded the building, towards the end of the block.

Peter noticed it right away. Mr. Warren, he was standing there. He was right there, by one of the cars in the parking lot. Peter knew it was him, there was no mistaking it. 

In all the action around Spider-man, it had completely slipped Peter’s mind that Mr. Warren had been absent from school. His heart raced a little, he couldn’t think for a second. Did this prove this theory? 

“Hey, Pete?” He heard a knock on the door. He sat up and took EDITH off.

“Yeah, come in.”

Happy walked into the room. “Do you have a second?”

“Yeah sure,” Peter said, moving his legs and bringing them up, so he was sitting crossed-legged on the bed and Happy could sit on the end.

“What happened today,” Happy started, “has it happened to you before? The panicking?”

Peter rolled his shoulders back, his hands running into his hair, his favorite nervous habit. He stopped at the nape of his neck, head tilted down a little. He wasn’t embarrassed, not really. He had these sorts of panic attacks before, in the past. When he was younger and then, after Uncle Ben had died and then, after the spider bite and then, well, after being turned to dust for 5 long years. They weren’t horrible and they weren’t bad, sometimes things just got a bit off and he needed to remember proper breathing.

Happy must have taken his silence as an omission of guilt because he started talking again. “The boss used to get them too. Complete meltdowns every once in a while, which I mean, of course, he would have them. He would act all noble about it because Tony Stark is not a damsel in distress. Not saying that you are or anything. I’m just saying, it’s not anything you need to be embarrassed about.”

Peter opened his mouth to talk, but Happy seemed to be on some kind of roll now. “It’s stupid to think you wouldn’t be having these, after everything that’s happened. I wish we could have thought about it sooner. You’re really lucky to have those two friends in your life too, Pete. They handled themselves really well, not only today but back in London. Smart kids, they knew who to call and they knew how to get you someone quickly.”

Peter nodded his head. “Yeah,” he finally was able to say. “Guy in the chair.”

Happy made a face for a second and then smiled, he reached his hand and put it on Peter’s leg. “I know you don’t need to hear this but if you need anything, you know I’m here, so is May.”

Peter nodded again. “Thanks, Happy.”

Happy got up and headed towards the door, just as his hand touched the doorknob, Peter opened his mouth.

The words jumped out of Peter’s mouth before he had a chance to stop them like they were bubbling up from a volcano in his stomach. “I think there’s a connection between some robberies, the deformed bodies, and the guys that fought Spider-man.”

Happy stopped and turned. “Yeah? Do you have any proof?”

“No,” Peter admitted, “but I just… I have a feeling. And I think my Chem teacher might be involved too.”

Happy made a face. “Okay.” He said slowly, shaking his head. “Okay. Text me his name and anything you might have, I’ll pass it along.”

===

Fake Spider-man was in upstate New York, resting in a fancy hospital bedroom. There had been photos, a smiling, not Peter Parker, bandaged up, sitting in a bed with his blonde girlfriend, Stacey, or something by his side. He took an interview too, telling the public that he was fine and he’d be back to being Spider-man again real soon, thanks for all of our concern folks. Peter found him creepily charming and he wondered if that’s just how Fury thought of him. Did they tell him to act like the real Peter Parker? 

Happy was true to his word. He even sent Peter the information he was able to get from the fight. They had captured the guys but they all died shortly after. Happy didn’t have that much information on how it happened. Peter asked EDITH too, she also couldn’t tell him very much either.

There was more bad news too, Happy reported back that his teacher was okay. That’s it. Just okay. Nothing wrong with him or his brother. The same amount of information Peter had found. He promised to tell Peter if anything came up and made Peter promise to do the same. 

And that was it, Mr. Warren came back to school the following week and Peter was, well, just out of gas.

And still not back in the suit.

===

Peter walked back into his apartment after school, May was sitting on the couch with… someone. It reminded him so painfully of seeing Mr. Stark in his apartment for the first time. But when the guy turned around it was fake Peter Parker.

“Hi Peter,” he said smiling at him.

“Hi,” Peter said, not really knowing what he should be saying here, or doing. He hadn’t seen fake Spider-man on TV in a while, he was still supposedly resting.

Fake Peter stood up and walked over to him, extending his hand. “I think it’s about time we actually meet. I’m Oliver Osnick.”

Peter took his hand, up close they didn’t really look that much alike. They weren’t even all that similar in build either, Oliver was taller than him, a little skinnier.

“I’m Peter,” Peter said, like an idiot because, yes, he knew his name, he was pretending to be him for the last 5 months.

“Do you mind if we have a talk?” Oliver asked him, Peter nodded and they walked into his room. Oliver shut the door and took a look around. Peter was feeling déjà vu again.

“So, uh, why are you here?” Peter asked him, putting his bag down on his bed. Oliver walked around, looking at Peter’s things before sitting at Peter’s desk.

Oliver smiled. “Big fan. Wanted to get a chance to meet you at least once.”

Peter usually had a good read on people, but Oliver was throwing him off. On TV Oliver came across a lot… lighter. He seemed friendly and warm but this Oliver, he seemed stiff and reserved. He was eyeing Peter like he was trying to open a safe.

“Oh,” Peter responded, he had no idea what to say. 

“I’ve also come to wish you good luck,” Oliver started looking at the items on Peter’s desk, he picked up a few items, peering at each of them quizzically. 

“Good luck?” Peter questioned.

“Yeah,” Oliver seemed to be finished with what he was looking at and put Peter’s stuff down. He stood up and walked back over to him. He put his hand on Peter’s shoulder. “I’m hanging up my spidey suit.”

Peter’s heart nearly leaped from his chest. “Really?” He asked, his voice a bit higher than usual, he sounded like a kid again.

“I’ve done enough to get the heat off you and honestly, it turns out being Spider-man is a lot harder when you aren’t special,” Oliver said with a laugh. “But you didn’t hear any of this from me, so act surprise kiddo.”

Oliver squeezed his shoulder and then ruffled Peter’s hair before walking out of Peter’s bedroom. He could hear Oliver say something to May and then the sound of the front door.

May walked into his room a second later. “I’m sure you’re happy.”

Peter hugged her, tightly. She laughed and hugged him right back.

===

Peter got his stuff back three days later. Happy had it waiting for him when he walked into the apartment after school. It was like Christmas, all of his things were just sitting there. His web-shooters were the first thing he put back on the comfortable weight of them feeling like home.

The suit came with some rules, he was to take it slow, just be the friendly neighborhood Spider-man. Take it easy, don’t go too hard.

Peter would have pretty much-done anything at that point, just to get back into the suit again but May wanted him to wait just two more days, until the weekend came.

Friday was the slowest day of his life at school. He was vibrating with excitement, barely paying any attention to anything. 

Putting the suit back on felt like a real homecoming. He couldn’t have asked for a better night to patrol either, it was just starting to warm up again after the long winter they’d had. 

It was late at night when Karen alerted him to a robbery in progress. He had been sitting on top of a building drinking a Slurpee a 7/11 clerk gave him for stopping a robbery. He wasn’t going to lie, he really missed all the free food people would offer him. He wondered if fake Spider-man took up their offers too. 

He threw away his drink and swung down to the shop getting robbed. It looked like a restaurant. He could hear people talking inside, the front door had been busted open, he dropped in front of it and walked in.

“Hey dude,” he said to the two guys standing by the back, “lookin’ for a midnight snack?”

They rushed him because of course, this is what always happened. He swung around them, making jokes, bobbing in and out of the way. This felt comfortable, this felt good. This all felt like Spider-man.

He had one of them partially webbed up, at least enough that he couldn’t move anymore. He turned to deal with the other guy. He suddenly rushed at Peter, now holding a small pocket knife. Peter easily moved out of the way, the knife barely scraping the suit. 

“Did you just bring a pocket knife to a fist fight?” Peter cracked as the guy swiped at him again.

Peter dogged easily, moving to the side, their fight had moved them towards the back of the restaurant, where the giant freezer was. The guy stood across from Peter for a moment and then started running towards him, arms out. He managed to barrel into Peter at top speed, but only succeeded in pushing him into the freezer.

Peter fell to the ground in a loud thud, the guy didn’t even try anything else. Instead, he got back up running out the freezer door, shutting it behind him.

Peter sat there, staring into the dark freezer, surrounded by what he assumed was food. The only light was from a small light bulb on the ceiling. “Did you just lock me in a freezer?” He called out to the robber. 

The guy didn’t even bother to respond. “Karen,” he added, “did he just put me in a freezer?”

“It seems so, Peter. Would you like me to call for assistance?”

“No,” Peter said quickly, “I think I can handle being locked in a freezer.”

Peter took stock of himself first. He had got knocked around a bit, but he felt fine overall. A tiny beeping sound went off in his suit and then Karen started again, “Just an update Peter, you are due back home in 15 minutes.”

Ah yes, Peter’s curfew. If he’s a little late, May will understand, he is locked in a freezer after all. Peter took a deep breath and then ran at the door pretty hard, jamming it with his shoulder. It makes a loud noise and a Peter shaped dent into the door, but it didn’t open. 

“Aright,” Peter says out loud, “I’ve handled much worse. I can open the door.”

He suddenly shivered violently. “Peter,” Karen added, “your temperature is getting low. You are not in danger of hypothermia at this time but I am giving you a warning.”

“Thanks,” he replied and then stepped all the way to the back of the freezer. Karen never tells him the good news. He geared himself up again and ran, jamming his shoulder back into the door. This time, it actually hurt him more than the door. His shoulded ached from the impact. He sighed, hurting himself wasn’t going to do any good.

“Okay,” Peter said, rolling his shoulders, “I need to use science on this one. Karen, where’s the best place for me to hit the door to force it open?”

“Instead of running against the door, you should stand and kick at the door handle. It would apply enough pressure to open the door.”

“Alright,” Peter said and walked towards the door, getting his stance correct. “A little late on informing me on that one. Do you have any other tips on getting the door open before I try?”

“I recommend you open the door with the latch at the bottom, Peter.. This freezer was manufactured only 5 years ago, all current freezers allow for you to unlatch from the inside.”

“What?” Peter all but choked, he coughed, bending over and putting his hands on his knees. He wheezed for a few minutes and then lifted his eyes up to look at the door. “It opens from the inside? Why was this not the first thing you told me?” 

“You didn't ask, Peter.”

Peter started laughing, a real loud laugh that echoed in the freezer. He walked over and, well, opened the freezer door. The latch was fairly obvious now that he actually looked at it. The door swung open slowly (Peter might have actually done more damage to the door running into it) and revealed an empty restaurant. No sign of the robbers, not even the one he had webbed up.

He laughed out loud again, grabbing a pen and paper to write an apology note for the restaurant owners. He’d call the police before he left too. 

He really did miss this. 

===

“Hm,” MJ hummed, she had a newspaper in front of her face. Peter looked up from his homework. He found himself smiling over the fact that MJ still insisted on reading actual newspapers. 

She lifted her head slightly, her eyes going over the paper’s edge to look at Peter. “There was a break in again, last week at another genetics lab. Not a lot taken, just like before.”

“I thought those had stopped?” Ned questioned from his seat across from them at Peter’s kitchen table. There was a plate of cookies in front of them, May had baked them, and none had been taken.

“Me too,” MJ replied. “That’s odd, isn’t it? It’s just out of nowhere. The bodies stopped too and now break-ins are back?”

“There’s a connection, I know it,” Peter put down his pencil. He had been thinking about it still, of course, he had. He wouldn’t stop thinking about it, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. “I feel like we’re just missing something. What do they all have in common?”

“Did you ever find out what those guys were all about?” Ned asked, “The ones that beat up Spider-man.”

Peter shook his head. “Nothing more than what Happy sent the first time. EDITH didn’t give me any additional information either.”

MJ put the newspaper down. “Let’s just talk this out, okay? What do we know about the crimes?”

“There were a lot of robberies of several different types of places, mostly science related ones. Nothing major was stolen besides minor equipment. Those stopped and then disfigured bodies started showing up. After that fake Spider-man gets beaten up by guys who we think are enhanced but they die before anyone could find something out. Everything stops and now, robberies are starting up again.” 

Peter drummed his fingers on the table as he talked. “It almost fits. I mean, it sounds like someone is doing something to people that isn’t working, so they are dying. However, whatever is getting stolen doesn’t seem like it goes with it. The guy can disfigure someone but he has to steal a beaker?”

MJ hummed again. “You’re not wrong. Maybe the guy has access to only whatever he’s using to disfigure bodies? We don’t know what he’s doing to them, the news hasn’t really reported very much about it. He could be making something to inject them with but just didn’t have supplies handy.”

“What do we know about Mr. Warren?” Ned asked. “How does that fit into this?”

“When there were robberies, he was arguing with his brother about them. When the bodies showed up, he was out in a place with his brother where some of the guys started...” Peter thought of something, suddenly. Something he knew before but seemed to have slipped his mind.

“Oh,” he said suddenly, “the night I got hit in the head, right before the guy hit me with a bat he said that Warren might want to keep me.”

“That’s useful,” MJ blurted, “any reason why you didn’t share that with the class earlier?”

“I might have been mildly concussed at the time it happened, MJ,” Peter said, without any real bite. “So, that means Warren was kidnapping people. He was responsible for the bodies. Warren is stealing stuff, making people into disfigured messes, and then dumping them. He finally gets one to work or something, those guys, there must have been some kind of success. And now he’s stealing again because he needs to make more!”

It all started to come together in Peter’s head, it all started to make sense.

“There are some leaps in logic,” Ned jumped in, “we’re jumping to conclusions a little. Like our chem teacher is making enhanced mutant people.”

The trio were silent for a moment. “I mean, it sounds like it works, but we still don’t have any solid evidence of what’s happening. We also don’t know why he’s doing it or what he’s doing to them. Why send them after Spider-man? It wasn’t like he was investigating what was happening.”

“We need to get evidence,” Peter said, making up his mind in that second. “We need to find Mr. Warren and see what he’s doing.”

“How are we going to do that?” Ned questioned. “We’re kids, not spies.”

“I’m Spider-man,” Peter replied, “ I’m basically a spy.”

MJ snorted. “Uh, no. You are not basically a spy.”

“Drones,” Peter said suddenly, “I’ve got my spider-drones. We can use those.”

“Since when do you have drones?” Ned asked, incredisouly. “Why was I not told about SPIDER DRONES?”

Peter winced. “Yeah, sorry about that. I forgot to mention it, alright?”

“Boys,” MJ said and the way she said it, Peter’s heart fluttered just a bit, “let’s figure out how we’re going to do this. We need a plan. When you two go off and do things without one, things tend to go down in flames.”

===

The plan was simple, Peter was going to be Spider-man and he was going to follow Mr. Warren around until they had any kind of evidence. Ned and MJ were going to make sure he didn’t do anything really stupid and also, be there in case he needed help.

They picked the following Saturday to put the plan into action. Peter was already outside Mr. Warren’s apartment, MJ and Ned stayed behind in his bedroom. He had his spider-drone ready to go, Mr. Warren just needed to go somewhere so they could start following him. 

They got lucky and within 30 minutes of waiting, Mr. Warren walked out of his front door and onto the streets of New York. Peter followed from the rooftops, swinging in between the buildings, letting this spider-drone stay ahead of him, running around the edges of the street. He was controlling it with this phone, he had MJ and Ned talking in his ear. Mr. Warren got into an Uber and Peter barely got the spider-drone attached to the car before it took off.

He followed the car, ideally listening to his friends talk in the background. The car stopped in front of a rather small unremarkable building. Peter waited until Mr. Warren went inside, before swinging over and landing on the roof.

He could see what the spider-drone was seeing, he had brought it up on his HUD. “Ned, can you control the drones?” Peter asked it was easier for him to do this hands-free. He tucked his phone back into his suit.

“Cool,” Ned said in reply and then the spider-drone was scattering across the floor, fast and a little clumsy. “Sorry,” Ned said, “I just have to get used to it, oh okay, we’re good.”

The spider-drone followed Mr. Warren past a small empty room, into a bigger room in the back of the building. It looked like a lab, there were tables filled with instruments and papers. In the back of the room, there were… cages? The view from the drone wasn’t the best, Ned was trying to keep it hidden behind table legs as it came closer to Mr. Warren.

Mr. Warren had stopped when he saw his brother.

“Miles,” Mr. Warren’s voice rang into Peter’s ears, “What are you going to do?”

Ned had stopped the spider-drone in a good spot, they could see the brothers and hear them clearly.

“The right thing,” Miles said looking over at his brother.

“Miles,” Mr. Warren said, his voice laced with pleading, “I’m begging you to just drop this.”

“No,” Miles sounded angry. “Just look at this.”

“I don’t need to see it. I know about the bodies. I saw them.”

Peter’s heart stopped. He said bodies, he was talking about the dead guys. His mind started racing in circles, okay, Peter thought, we got him now. And then, Peter caught one word coming from Mr. Warren’s mouth that chilled him to the bone.

“Spider-man…”

Peter froze in place, his breath hitched. He had to focus to hear the next few words Mr. Warren said.

“Not the real one.”

“Yes,” Miles was replying, “thanks to a new friend, we know that now and…”

“PETER!” He heard MJ yelling, very, very loudly. Whatever Mr. Warren was saying after that was lost.

He knows. He knows there’s a fake Spider-man. Does he know Peter Parker is the real Spider-man? Why does he know this? How could he know this? What did any of this have to do with anything? Peter could feel himself starting to hyperventilate, the world seemed to be closing in on him. They knew. What’s going to happen?

“Get this to Happy now,” Peter said, finally coming back to himself just a little. He was already moving into the building, crawling down the side.

“Don’t go after him,” Ned was saying, they knew him too well sometimes, “just come back. We’ve already sent Happy the video.”

“I’ve got this,” Peter said, his body moving on automatic now. “I’ve got this.”

He swung down the side of the building, crawling along the edge until he was by the front. He looked into the window, it was still dark, but he could see the second set of doors towards the back.

Taking a deep breath, he hopped down and opened the first set of doors.

“Are you just going to walk inside?” he heard MJ asking him.

“Yeah,” Peter said, “I’m already inside and I’m going to arrest them.”

Peter got the second set of doors, the drone conversation was still happening in his ear but it was background noise to the sound of his own racing heartbeat. He had to get in there and stop them before they told anyone else about the fake Spider-man. 

“Peter, have you been listening?” MJ said in a worried tone of voice, “because they aren’t –“

Peter’s spider-sense flared, he had time to turn his head before seeing something hurling at him with force. He didn’t get a chance to move completely, but whatever slammed into him managed to get him on the ground.

He slide across the floor for a second but managed to stop himself. He could hear MJ and Ned, screaming things in his ear, it wasn’t helping the present situation. He looked up and there were people standing in front of him. Four of them in total.

And no, they weren’t just guys. They were, they were all Spider-man.

===

“Oh, oh, shit,” Peter started, pushing himself back with his hands and feet until he hit the hard wall. 

The spider men walked towards him, they were all wearing a suit that looked like his but in soild black. He couldn’t see what they looked like under their masks. Did they look like him? The thought made him feel even more hysterical. 

But, as they got closer, no, there was something else. They were … they were literal spider men. Two of them had extra arms, failing about their middle bits. They looked horrible, disgusted. One of them had some webbing like material on his hands, his bare hands. They all looked so very wrong. Peter’s stomach clenched and he felt like throwing up.

Was this real? Was Peter really seeing this? Was this Beck again? Did Peter never actually escape him? Was this always just an illusion?

He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t move. He could just stare at these… these things coming towards him. 

“Peter,” Karen said calmly in his ear, “your heart rate is very high.”

He was trying so hard to breathe, so hard to move, to do anything but nothing was working. His lungs refused to take in air, his head was refusing to stay focused on anything other than the four spider men standing, looming in front of him.

Sound wasn’t working right, nothing was making any sense in his own head. There was shouting, so much shouting, it was coming from every single direction. His senses were on complete overload. It was all just too much. He felt the inside of his mask getting wet and he opened his mouth and let out a loud sob. 

The spider men were walking towards him, lumbering at him. It was like with Beck all over again. They were going to jump him, they were going to grab at him and pull him apart. 

What were they going to do to him? Where are they going to take him? Was this going to happen to him now too? Did they get bitten too? Was he going to become one of them?

Peter’s mind was on fire. He rolled, tried to move but he felt like this entire body was full of concrete. He ripped the mask from his face, heaving, sobbing, gasping for air. 

They had stopped advancing at him. Peter had to pull himself together, he had to get up and fight. He had to get up and move.

“Is this the real Spider-man?” He heard a voice, somewhere far away but so close. Were they talking to him? Were the other spider men asking him this?

“That’s Peter Parker.”

“Lucky us, I guess we get to finally see what makes Spider-man so special.”

There were so many more sounds now too, voices and shouting and sirens. Peter could only get out a strangled sob, when he tried to open his mouth. He shut his eyes, he couldn’t see this anymore, he couldn’t look. Even with his eyes shut tight, all he could see were a sea of endless spider men, marching towards him.

All Peter could do was let go and let them shallow him up.

===

Peter snapped back to awareness like a rubber band. He could feel hands on him, holding him down, way too many hands. He jumped up, his head screaming at him for it, but he had to get up. 

Everyone around him was a blur of people, he tried to swing at them, hands feebly swapping at nothing.

“Woah, Peter, you’re okay.” He felt someone put a solid hand on his arm. “Peter, it’s Happy. You’re okay.”

And then everything started to come back into focus. He let out a sob, sucking in air so quickly it started making him choke.

“Easy,” he heard someone say and then felt a hand on his back. “Lay back down, you’re fine but you have to breathe now.”

He felt something pinch at his arm for just a second and then things started to slide back into focus. Happy was there, Happy was there, standing right next to him.

“That’s right,” Happy said, he was holding Peter’s hand now. “Just look at me. You’re fine. Everything is fine.”

Peter opened his mouth to talk. “Spider-man,” he started, “everywhere.”

“We know kid, but we got you out. There’s only one Spider-man here now and that’s you. Put your head back down, you need to relax.”

Peter tried to look at the others, had to make sure none of them were spider men, but Happy squeezed his hand again and Peter started feeling like something warm was washing over him, like a wave from the ocean, pulling him away back to sleep.

===

When he woke up again, he was at the SHIELD facility, laying on a med bay bed. He tried to sit up again but May and Happy were at his side in an instant, trying to keep him from moving. 

Before Peter could even open his mouth, Happy was already talking. “You’re fine, Pete. You’re in the medbay. Take a second and focus.”

Peter did just that, closed his eyes and focused on everything around him. He could feel the IV on the back of his hand, the scratchy feel of the hospital gown against his skin. May’s hand was on his arm. “I’m okay.”

“Good,” May said to him softly, “one of the nurses is going to come in with some food.”

A nurse came in shortly after with some bland looking soup and jello. She thankfully took the IV with her. Peter was already feeling better than before. He was just about to have some soup when Nick Fury came bounding into the room. He started right away, winding himself into a speech, “What on Earth did you think you were do-”

“Let’s give Peter a break,” May suddenly jumped in, eyes narrowed on Nick Fury. It amused Peter that Fury actually looked a bit taken aback. “He can talk to you when he’s feeling better.”

“It’s fine May,” he said quickly, he wanted to stop the argument before it went any further.

He just wanted to get it all over with, just wanted to be done talking about it. Everyone had stopped to look at him. He took a deep breath and started talking. He told them everything, starting from the first time he had suspicions about Mr. Warren, up until seeing all the Spider-man surrounding him. They listened, no one even interjecting their own questions, which surprised Peter.

After it was all said and done, it was just that, done. Fury asked a few questions, made a lot of unhappy sounds and then left. Knowing Fury wouldn’t answer many of them, Peter started to ask a million questions about what had happened to him.

Thanks to MJ and Ned, Happy was able to get SHIELD to his location rather quickly. They stormed the building and found the Warrens, the weird spider men and Peter. In the commotion, both brothers were able to get out but they managed to grab all of the spider men. Happy said it had been easy, the guys were barely able to put up a fight, that fact just made Peter feel stupid. He was so overwhelmed about what he saw, he didn’t even try to fight them.

Peter listened to Happy but a question was stabbing him in the gut and he finally blurted it out. “Are they me? I mean, are they my... clones?”

Peter didn’t want to look up at either of them. “No, not at all Peter,” Happy said, “we don’t know what they were but they were not you.”

“Were?” Peter questioned, “are they… dead?”

He looked up and caught the look in May & Happy’s faces. “Yes, Peter. Unfourrently whatever was done to them… it wasn’t good and they didn’t last very long.”

A huge wave of guilt washed over Peter. What was happening? Why were these spider men existing and dying? He knew neither of them knew any other answers to his questions, so he mustered a fake smile and nodded. 

Peter had to stay until the next day, he kept asking more questions but there were very few answers and everyone just kept telling Peter it was okay. He didn’t feel that way, not at all. None of this was okay. 

Peter sat on his bed, they promised him he could go home soon. He was just waiting for someone to come get him. In the meantime he was looking through news feeds on his phone. The news had already leaked about the fight. There wasn’t much information available, but enough to fill the headlines.

ARE THERE MORE spider men? SPIDER CLONES! WHO IS THE REAL SPIDER-MAN?

Images had leaked, of course they did. You couldn’t see much, but you could see Peter being carried into a SHIELD van. You could see one of Spider-man's black suits. None of them were very good photos, you couldn’t see any of their … mutations. But it was enough to fuel the media’s fires.

There was a knock on the door and Peter put his phone down. “Come in.”

“Hey Peter.” Oliver walked in his room. He looked a little different than the last time Peter had seen him, a little less Peter Parker like. He had cut his hair shorter then Peter usually had his, styled differently too.

“Hey,” Peter echoed back to him.

He came over and sat down on the edge of Peter’s bed. “You did great out there, kiddo.”

Peter looked at him. “I didn’t do anything,” he said truthfully.

“Don’t be so modest, Peter. You figured out where the bad guys were and you got ‘um! You’re the amazing Spider-man. You’ve got something that makes you special.”

Peter shrugged, he certainly didn’t feel that way anymore. He didn’t do anything other than let the Warren’s escape and hide in a corner until help came. Hardly the amazing Spider-man.

There was a beat of silence before Oliver started talking again. “Well, anyway, I’ve come to say goodbye again. This time for real, kiddo.” 

“Thanks,” Peter said, “for uh, everything.”

Oliver nodded, put his hand out and Peter shook it. He got up and headed towards the door, but before he left, he turned around. “I don’t know how you do it without the powerful suit, kiddo. I guess you just got lucky to have those amazing abilities, huh?.”

Peter snorted, most people didn’t use the word luck and Peter Parker in the same sentence. “I wouldn’t call being bitten by a radioactive spider all that lucky.”

Something passed in Oliver’s face, just a flicker of something and then it was gone. He laughed. “I guess not,” he said before giving Peter a little wave and then walking out the door.

===

Going back to his apartment made Peter feel a little better, but things still didn’t feel finished. There were so many questions left. Even talking to MJ and Ned didn’t help.

The day after they got home, Happy came in and told Peter they had found Mr. Warren. He was dead, sucide, maybe not. They weren’t sure. Peter didn’t know how to take the news, a little angry, a little upset, a little relieved. His brother, however, was still missing. 

MJ and Ned came over the following day after school. Peter hadn’t gone back to school yet. His stomach aches every time he thought about walking into Chemistry class now. May was understanding but Peter knew he had to go back.

“We missed our senior year field trip,” MJ said, as they sat on Peter’s floor. He and Ned were going over some updates to his spider-drone while MJ was reading a book.

“Huh,” Ned said, “yeah, I guess I didn’t even think about a field trip this year.”

“I mean, we’re pretty bad at having field trips, so I’m kinda happy we were too busy worrying about Peter to attend.” 

“I dunno, I’d rather have gone to San Francisco then fight mutant black suited spider men,” Peter said with a shrug. 

They were silent, the only sound was Ned’s keyboard keys and the sound of MJ turning the pages in her book.

“Alright, Peter,” she finally said after a few minutes, “I know there’s something going on in your head. Spill it.”

He ran his hand through his hair, rubbing the back of his neck. “Nothing, really.”

MJ sighed and put her book down. “You’re really bad at acting like nothing is bothering you. Like, terribly bad at it. You have a million tells and you’re doing all of them right now.”

Peter dropped his hand from his neck, rolling his shoulders. “No.”

Ned didn’t look up from the laptop. “Let me guess, he just rolled his shoulders and now he’s drumming his fingers on something.”

Peter shot him a look… as he stopped drumming his fingers on his leg.

“Yeah, we’ve got this whole Peter Parker thing down. We are the founding members of the Peter Parker Protection Committee,” MJ said, smirking at him.

“Membership dues are a pain,” Ned said, “but you’re lucky it takes too long to break in a new best friend. I don’t have the patience to teach anyone the handshake.”

Peter was really lucky and he knew it, so he owed them the truth. “I just don’t feel right about everything that happened still.”

“With the mutant spiders?”

“Yeah, like, I feel like something is still missing. The story just doesn’t make sense. I feel like there’s something really important that we’re missing.”

“I mean, Mr. Warren’s brother is still on the run?” Ned said, putting the laptop down. 

“That’s not it, it’s just. Why did they dress up as me? What’s so special about dressing up as Spider-man? They had no reason to suspect I was following them or going to see them. Why go through all that effort.”

“Maybe they were going to try and frame you for something? They could have just been waiting and we happened to get the jump on them,” MJ suggested.

“Yeah but they were mutant spiders people, no one would have thought it was me.”

“What if they were trying to make a copy of you? Not just turn them into mutant spiders, but actually you. All the powers without the spider appearance.”

Peter nodded, that had been on his mind. “It didn’t work…,” he trailed, trying to remember anything he could from what Mr. Warren and his brother were talking about. “I think, I think they knew something wasn’t right.” Peter said quickly things clicked in place. “Remember? They realized whatever was happening, they weren’t getting it right.”

“Why,” MJ asked, “what was different about it? I mean, isn’t that what happened to you? You got your DNA mixed in with a spider. What makes you special?”

“I dunno,” Peter said, remembering the phrase that had been following him around lately, “what makes me so special?”

The radioactive spider bite, that’s what made him so special. But Mr. Warren didn’t know that, he couldn’t have known that.

MJ’s phone went off suddenly, as if it was trying to answer the questions for them. She looked down sheepishly. “Sorry, I still have the crime alerts set up.” She read something. “Huh, there’s a break in at Oscorp power planet right now.”

And that, that was the answer. Something in Peter’s brain started clicking. “They know.” 

“What?” Ned questioned, Peter had shot up like a bullet and started to grab for his suit. He was throwing his shoes and pants off, without any regard for both MJ and Ned sitting there.

“It’s Miles, he knows. He knows that the bite was radioactive, he’s going to try to make a Spider-man.”

“Dude,” Ned said, just as Peter managed to get this suit on, he reached for his mask. “How would they?”

Peter stopped, suit on, mask over his face. He wanted to move, wanted to go to the planet… but could he be sure? Who would know about the radioactive spider bite?

_“I wouldn’t call getting bitten by a radioactive spider lucky…”_

It hit Peter like a ton of bricks. “Oliver.”

“Uh, who?”

Peter shook his head and went to the window. “The fake Peter Parker, Oliver. I told him, I told him it was a radioactive spider bite. I don't know how, but Miles knows now and they are going to try and make a Spider-man with radiation. I have to go.”

“Then go!” MJ yelled back at him. “We’ll call Happy.”

He paused, looking at his friends and then went out the window.

===

It took Peter way too long to get the power planet. Happy had called him halfway there, Peter was sure he’d tell him to turn around but instead, he told Peter back up was on their way. It gave Peter a boost of confidence. 

When he arrived he asked Karen to help figure out where Miles or Oliver might be. She directed him to a window and when he looked, he saw Miles standing at some tables. Peter couldn’t tell what he was doing.

Taking a deep breath, he kicked in the window and dropped to the ground.

Miles didn’t turn around. “Hello, Peter Parker.”

Peter flinched but didn’t say anything right away. Miles turned around, smiling broadly. “I was wondering when you’d show up.”

“Well,” Peter swallowed roughly, “I heard you were inviting other spider men to the party. I got offended.” 

He stepped a few feet closer, Miles didn’t make any moves, he just leaned up against the table he was at, still smiling. “Quite the contrary, I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for awhile now. You were the one who let someone else take care of your battles.”

Peter flinched. “Everyone’s gotta take a vacation sometimes, right?”

Miles smirked. “I’m glad you’re back now, but honestly, I don’t even need you anymore. It’s still nice to actually meet you.”

“I’m hurt! I guess you’ve been working with Oliver from the start, so of course you like him better.” 

Karen splashed a message on his HUD, SHIELD was still about 25 minutes out. So, just keep the guy talking for a bit longer. Super villains always liked to talk if you let them. 

“Actually, Oliver, he came to me on his own. He came to me because he wanted to be you, he wanted to know what made Peter Parker so special. And so did I,” Miles’ titled his head back and forth, eyeing Peter.

“And to think, you were in my brother’s class room this entire time too. I tried to convince Ray to ask you about it. He couldn’t believe that you were Spider-man and he didn’t want to. If he would have just listened to me, we wouldn’t have wasted so much time with the fake one. It’s such a shame Ray got in the way. He liked you Peter. Once he realized it was you, he tried to stop me again. I’m sure you’re aware of how that turned out.”

Peter swallowed. Did he kill Mr. Warren? 

“What?” Peter asked, he didn’t want to know this, he didn’t. But he had to stall him.

“Oh,” Miles said with a bigger smile, “Ray was trying to stop me from the start you know. He begged me not to do this to those innocent people. He didn’t understand Peter, he didn’t understand what you are.”

Peter’s breath hitched. Mr. Warren was trying to stop him? Mr. Warren wasn’t part of this? And now, now he’s dead because he liked Peter. He was dead because of Peter.

“Anyways,” Miles continued on, “enough about my brother,” he said with a sneer. “I’m sure you want to know what my plan was, don’t you?”

Peter didn’t say anything, he just stared ahead. He couldn’t think straight anymore, it was his fault, his fault.

Miles didn’t seem to mind, instead he kept going, like this was fun for him. “It was so simple, I should have seen it before. I was so worked up in the bio part of it, in thinking that it was the spider DNA and then, that it was your DNA. That’s what I tried again, those poor spider men you saw in my building. They were you, Peter Parker, they were you without the radiation.”

Peter blinked, his mind racing. “But people get bit by spiders all the time and they don’t turn into literal spiders.”

“I thought you were smart,” Miles said with a sneer, “I’m not talking about just getting bitten by a spider, Peter. I’m talking about talking about biohacking. Augmenting your DNA, changing you into something else. It doesn’t have to be spiders, it could be anything. It could be rhinos, vultures, scorpions, lizards, octopuses...,” he trailed, “jackals, it’s endless.”

Something moved, something was moving around in the dark of the room. His spider-sense sent a very clear message down his spine, danger, danger, danger.

“Oh,” Miles said, sounding delighted, “I think we’re ready now. I wasn’t just talking for the hell of it Peter, I had to give him some time.”

Miles’ eyes flickered up to the ceiling. Slowly Peter looked up, Oliver was crawling on the ceiling, moving quickly towards Peter. In a second he dropped down in front of him, smiling broadly.

There was Oliver in a Spider-man suit.

But this one was different, Peter thought, this wasn’t the armor, it wasn’t the suit with his enhancements.

===

Oliver lunged at him, but Peter was a fraction of a second faster and moved, jumping to catch the side of the wall. His heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest at any moment. He could feel the panic rising, he just had to keep pushing it down.

How? Peter kept thinking, how is he going to do this? Some part of him knew that this is where Miles’ experiments were leading to but he was hoping he’d get here before this happened. 

Oliver quickly adjusted his movements and jumped too, onto the wall. His impact was much harder then Peter’s had been, the wall had cracked a little. Peter moved, shooting his webs up into the rafters. Maybe he’d be lucky and Oliver didn’t have webs.

He turned, Oliver jumped over him, nearly catching up to Peter without even needing webbing to swing by.

“Great,” Peter said a little deliriously, looking ahead as he swung towards some tables. He landed hard on the ground. He just had to keep Oliver busy for 20 more minutes, keep him contained and keep him in here. He also had to remember to keep breathing, because the rush of adrenaline he was feeling, wasn’t going to hold back the panic.

He looked over to Miles, he was still standing at the table, looking like some kind of demented proud father. Peter headed his way. Miles never saw him coming, Peter was quickly and efficiently able to shoot webs at Miles, sticking him to the table.

“You stay here,” he said, swinging by, trying to keep an eye out on Oliver, who had started jumping and landing, a little wildly. He looked like Peter first did, after the bite. Before he knew how to control his powers. Like a toddler trying to run only a few minutes after learning how to walk. 

The thought made Peter let out sob a little, he knew the kind of pain Oliver must be feeling right now. The feeling of your entire body being rewritten, being remodelled from the inside out. He couldn’t help but to feel sorry for him. But he had to remember, Oliver asked for his. Oliver wanted this…but wasn’t that Peter’s fault to begin with?

He had momentarily lost sight of Oliver, but then he suddenly saw him out of the corner of his eye. He had picked up one of the tables and threw it in Peter’s direction. He moved out of the way, the table clipped him well enough to send him skidding a bit, landing on his butt, momentum only stopped by a wall.

Peter’s eyes closed and started hyperventilating. All of this was just too much, too much. He created this, he kept thinking, he drove Oliver to do this to himself. Why? 

“You know,” Oliver was saying, “I really didn’t want to fight you, Peter.”

Peter opened his eyes, Oliver was standing above him. “Funny way of showing it,” Peter wheezed a little.

“All I wanted was to be like you. I wanted to save the world, be the hero. I thought the suit SHIELD had made me, that would be good enough,” Oliver’s voice was harsh and broken sounding, “but it wasn’t. I needed what made you special and now I have it.”

He was right, Oliver was like him now. Oliver was Spider-man, for real. He was stronger then Peter, he was better than Peter. Everyone loved him, all those fans, they thought he was the real Spider-man and now, now he can be. 

“Why don’t you yield now, Peter? You can get up and walk away from this life. I can be Spider-man for you. The world already thinks that I am and now, with these powers, I can be the Spider-man that the people deserve. Not the 15 year old they got stuck with.”

Everything Oliver was saying was worming it’s way into Peter’s head. He was right, of course he was right. There’s no difference between them anymore. Once Oliver came around, no one believed that he was Spider-man anymore. No one cared about Peter Parker.

“Peter, you appear to be having another panic attack. I’ve alerted Happy.” Karen’s voice was ringing in his ear. Why, why did she have to tell Happy? That’s all he’s good for right now, sitting on the floor of a power plant, hyperventilating.

“You’re only proving my point here, Peter,” Oliver was saying, Peter couldn’t even look up at him anymore, it was too real. “You’re a child. You just got lucky, that’s all. It could have happened to anyone else. It’s just too bad it happened to a child.”

Peter squeezed himself into a ball, broughing his knees up to his chest. He put his head down, squeezing his eyes closed. Oliver was right. The only thing special about Peter Parker was that he was stupid enough to wander away on a field trip and get bit by a radio active spider. That if it hadn’t been him, it could have, it should have been someone else. 

Wasn’t this exactly what Beck said to him too? What’s so special about Peter Parker? What’s so special about him now that he isn’t the only Spider-man?

He felt like his head was going to explode. No one wanted him to be Spider-man, no one needed him to be Spider-man. SHIELD had the suits, all of them. SHIELD could make his web fluid. SHIELD could do it and now Miles can make him. Can make his own Spider-man.

“What do you say Peter Parker? We got a deal?”

But that’s who he is, isn’t it? Peter Parker. Peter Parker who got bitten by a radioactive spider when on a field trip. He’s the one who didn’t ask for his but he’s the one who went out there anyway. He’s the one protecting the little people. Oliver never did that. He didn’t care. 

“No,” Peter said simply, his breathing starting to feel a little more even. 

No. Oliver’s wrong. Oliver went to Miles for this, he went to someone he knew was hurting people. He let Miles turn those other people into spider men and he didn’t care.

“You’re wrong,” Peter rasped out, trying to control his breathing the best he could.

Peter opened his eyes, Oliver was standing there, he looked tired, he looked exhausted, his body shaking, he was almost breathing as heavy as Peter had been.

“What?” Oliver asked, clearly cut off guard from Peter’s remarks. 

“I’m not just Peter Parker. I’m Spider-man.”

And then he jumped up and lunged forward, hoping to catch Oliver off guard and he succeeded in slamming into him, knocking them over. Oliver landed with a loud thud and Peter jumped off him, landing behind him on his feet. He swayed, but then steadied himself.

He shot his webs at Oliver, who for the moment seemed to struggle with getting up.

“There’s a learning curve,” he said, watching Oliver struggle against his web, “to these powers. I guess you didn’t read the manual.”

Oliver broke out of it a little quicker then Peter expected. He jumped back up from his back, standing and then lunging towards Peter. He grabbed Peter’s arm and started to swing them around in circles. 

“Woaaah,” Peter said he felt like he was on a merry go round. Oliver seemed to be struggling and Peter realized he wasn’t actually holding onto him anymore, he was stuck on in. His hand was stuck to Peter’s arm, like he couldn’t figure out how the whole sticky thing worked.

Peter shot his web out, catching the wall and pulled, hard. The result was painful, so very painful but he got away. He just also left behind part of his suit and a good first layer or so of skin, still stuck to Oliver’s hand. 

“Oh god,” Peter said, as he hit the wall, stopping himself. He looked down, this arm was red and bleeding and it felt completely on fire. 

I have to use this against him, Peter thought, he can’t control anything. Oliver started yelling loudly and Peter looked up to see him slamming his hands on the ground. When his hand came up, he was holding a bit of the floor, still attached.

His eyes found Peter, still attached to the wall and attempted to fling the concrete floor at him, this time he seemed to figure out how to let go and the slab went flying towards Peter. Peter jumped away, landing with a roll on the ground.

“Peter, SHIELD are approaching. I have alerted them to the situation.”

“Cool, thanks,” Peter said back, “Sorry Oliver,” Peter called out to him, the force of throwing the bit of floor had sent Olive forward, unbalanced. “Looks like we’ve got some visitors.”

He watched as Oliver spun lightly, as if he couldn’t tell which direction Peter was in. Oliver was strong enough to break his webs, but he had to slow him down somehow. No doubt SHIELD could take him down, but this was his fight, his creation.

Oliver was stronger and a little faster, but he didn’t have any finesse in his movements, he kept over compensation. Peter knew what he had to do, he just had to be Spider-man, be Peter Parker.

So he jumped, flipped and flung himself around the building. He flew across the floor, taking turns he knew Oliver was too sloppy to actually make. Oliver kept up with him but Peter was gaining here and there. Oliver was making tiny slip ups, not landing as steady, moving too quickly and not using the proper momentum. 

It felt good, it felt normal. It felt like what he always did and always could do. 

But then good old fashion Peter Parker luck showed up.

===

Peter hung, upside for a moment, hovering a little above Oliver, his web attached to the ceiling above. They were both breathing heavy still, his lungs and arm were absolutely burning with pain. 

He thought he had Oliver then, in that moment, could hear the sounds of SHIELD coming towards the building.

His spider-sense shot down his spine, but Oliver had been quick. Just as Peter shot his web out to swing away, Oliver grabbed his arm and yanked, hard. 

Peter knew at the moment it happened it wasn’t going to be good. The pain was so intense, he shut his eyes and unable to keep swinging, slammed hard to the ground. He was too scared to open his eyes, he thought for sure Oliver had just ripped his arm off.

But he knew Oliver was still going to be coming at him. To his relief, his arm was still attached but it swung limply to his side. He’d gotten his arm torn out of it’s socket before, but this, this a heck of a lot worse. The pain was way more intense. 

“Too bad you’ve only got two arms instead of eight,” Oliver chuckled at him.

“Hey, I’m the one with the sarcastic quips man, not cool.”

Peter breathed heavily, pushing himself with his legs away from Oliver. His entire body hurt from the force of the landing, everything was starting to get harder to move. At least Oliver also looked a little tired, Peter counted that as a win.

Oliver started to bend down to grab him but Peter was finally faster. He got up and started to jump again, despite the lack of arm, his balance stayed with him. Oliver stumbled, he was getting sloppier and tired. 

Peter ended up behind him and he shot his webs out onto the back of Oliver’s leg and one handed, he pulled again, sending Oliver face first onto the floor.

A second later SHEILD agents were yelling and running behind him, towards the two.

Peter weakly pointed at Oliver, who was trying to get up. “That’s the evil twin,” he said hoarsely as Agents ascended on them. 

===

“You feeling better, kid?” Happy walked into Peter’s room, somewhere deep inside a different SHIELD facility. He was sitting up in the bed, trying to text with one arm in a sling and the other not. His arm hurt a little, it had been separated, not dislocated. Peter was told the difference, but it didn’t matter, it was still painful.

Peter shrugged his good shoulder. “Yeah.”

Happy walked in and sat on the end of Peter’s bed. He took a deep breath. “Can we have a talk?”

Peter nodded. “Yeah, of course.”

“I know what happened these last few months have been tough on you. You’ve been doing great out there and you know May and I are proud of you,” Happy gave him a reassuring smile. “You don’t have to answer me yet, but I’d like you to consider seeing one of the therapists here. They know how to help people with PTSD and they are all really nice.”

Peter had seen a therapist before, when he was younger. May and Ben had brought him there, worried about the silent seven year old kid who just lost his parents. It was fine, this will be fine too. May had prodded him about seeing one after Ben had died, but that was right after the spider bite and it was all too much.

Peter hated not being able to fiddle with both hands, he drummed his fingers on the top of his knee. “Yeah,” he said. “I mean, I figured at some point I guess I should.”

Happy reached over and squeezed the hand Peter was drumming. “Good, Tony would want this for you. He wouldn’t want to you have to carry all of this on your own. It’s good to talk to people.”

Peter nodded. “Can I talk to you?”

“Yeah, kid,” Happy said quickly, “of course you can talk to me.”

He looked down at his hands. He felt useless during the debriefings, he told everyone what happened and then zoned out. After the adrenaline from the battle finally finally wore off, he was feeling tired and a little sad.

“Why,” he asked looking up at Happy, he knew his eyes were red, “did it have to be me? Why did Miles want to clone me? He said it could have been any animal, but why did it have to end up being me?”

Happy sighed. “I don’t know kid. Sometimes things just happen and there’s not any good reason. But I can tell you this, none of what happened was your fault in the slightest. You did not force this guy to do this. You didn’t force Oliver to do anything. If anyone is to blame it’s SHIELD, it’s Fury for putting the idea of a new Spider-man out there. If there’s anyone who’s completely blameless, it’s you.”

Peter let out a breath he didn’t realize had been holding in. Happy was right in some ways, but it was still hard to accept it. At least right now.

“You’ve got some really great friends too, Pete. They care about you and are tough characters. You should talk to them too. I’m sure they’ll agree with me.”

“Thanks Happy, for everything. You don’t have to do this and I, I really appreciate how much you do. For me and for May.”

Happy reached over and ruffled his hair. “Of course, kiddo, of course.”

_===_

Peter was lying horizontally on the couch, MJ sat on his right, his head lying comfortably in her lap, while his feet were propped up on Ned’s. Neither seemed to mind. His friends did make comfortable pillows.

MJ was slowly running her hand through his hair. His arm was still in a sling, but it was getting better. 

Ned had changed the channel, he stopped on J. Jonah Jameson’s face, red with anger. “Which one is the REAL Spider-man?” A picture of Oliver right after the fight with Peter was on the screen and then next to it, a picture of Peter, mask thankfully on, after the fight as well. He tried to avoid being seen afterwards, but they managed to grab a shot as he was helped into the van by Happy. 

Ned changed the channel back to a cooking show. “Any idea on what they are going to do about your evil twin?”

“Technically,” MJ said, “he’s not Peter’s twin. He’s Peter’s genetic mutant child.”

Peter ignored her. “Dunno. He’s at some place called the Raft, along with Miles. I think Fury is so finished with me. He just wants me not to do anything stupid for awhile.”

“$10 says you do in a week,” MJ replied.

“MJ,” Ned said in a disapproving tone, but then, “$20 says it’s in the next 5 days.”

“You guys have so much faith in me, it breaks my heart,” Peter said with a laugh. 

They were silent again for a few minutes and then Peter spoke up. “Uh, so, thanks for like being around now. For me. It’s been helpful to have good friends.”

Peter closed his eyes so he didn’t have to see anything. MJ’s hand tightened in his hair for a second and then went back to lightly scratching the top of his head.

“Honestly,” Ned finally said, “I’m only friends with you to merely live vicariously through you.”

“And I’m only sticking around until you introduce me to Thor,” MJ added.

“Love you you guys too.”

Ned reached over and squeezed Peter’s ankle, as MJ continued to card her hand through his hair. Peter wasn’t totally back to feeling normal yet. His mind still buzzed with all the things that happened. But at least now he knew, he knew who he really was and he knew what really made him special. It was everyone in his life, who helped him, who took care of him. There could be a million people out there, dressed as Spider-man, but he was the one and only Peter Parker. 


End file.
